Network Masks - Stage I
by Agneta Steam
Summary: AU / Longfic - Many people enter the chat daily, everyone looking for something: meet people, distraction, information, someone to deceive... Seto entered the chat to escape from his reality... A reality that sooner or later he must face.
1. Session I: Jonouchi's POV

**Network Masks – Stage I**

Written by: Agneta Steam

Beta Reader: BreakfastForLife 14/07/16

Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! Belongs to me, and it is no longer owned by Kazuki Takahashi.

Clarifications: This is an Alternative Universe. Story partially inspired by real events and partly inspired by the movie "The Truman Show". It will consist of four stages (or five, I'm still deciding). The personalities of the characters are not going to be such as the anime / manga, and some family relationships and ages will be modified. Thank you for reading.

 **Session I:**

 **Jonouchi's POV**

Jonouchi tiptoes on his returned trip to his room, knowing that at this time everyone would be asleep. He put the glass of water over on the bedside table and got under the covers again. Quickly he took his cell phone from under the pillow and he was decided.

Of all his friends from that chat, this guy he was talking to was who he was most attracted to. He was one of the few who were not desperate to talk about sex, although they had treated it, and with whom he had been able to chat about more intimate matters. For that reason alone he had been thinking about meeting him in person.

 **Dominosxcboi: We should go out one of these days, do you think?**

They had spent two months chatting about everything, but there were many things that should only be talked about face to face so it was best to take the initiative once and for all.

 **Magicmirror: Do you want us to meet?**

Jonouchi smiled. He was used to his immediate responses but, considering the proposal, he had imagined he could take some time to respond and even disconnect to avoid the situation.

 **Dominosxcboi: Yes, why not? We have to kill boredom somehow haha**

He really just wanted to answer "yes". The rest of the message was to not interpret it as an obligation. The intention was not to corner anyone.

 **Magicmirror: I thought you didn't have interest in those things. We can meet in my apartment. Pass me your number so I'll send you my address.**

Jonouchi read the message several times wondering why he would interpret that he didn't have interest in meet personally. The phrase "those things" was too uncomfortable. Also, why ask for his number? Why not send the address directly by chat? And more importantly, why in his apartment?

Jonouchi rubbed his eyes, annoyed with all the questions that were flying in his mind. It was true that such invitations, a bit hasty, were disappointing. He had not pictured him as the kind of man who leads you to his home, no. That seemed to him so immature.

But it was not moment to question everything, assume always the worst scenario and ruin everything.

He read the message one last time, convincing himself that it was only a suggestion. He still might propose other meeting places.

 **Dominosxcboi: Actually, I was referring to 'go out' as in visiting an entertaining place...**

That was a subtle way to avoid going to his apartment. Or at least that was Jonouchi's idea.

 **Magicmirror: But how do you know that being at my apartment is not going to be funny? Haha... So what do you have in mind?**

If the first question was as a joke Jonouchi did not interpreted it like that. Could he have bothered?

 **Dominosxcboi: We could go to the cinema or to dance... Here are many nightclubs. A new one opened near the wharf. I haven't been there yet. Haha...**

Jonouchi was not the kind of guy who went out every night. When he was attending a pub it was because hi friends or job mates invited him. Most days he was helping his mother to attend the last customers of the pizza they had at the ground floor of their house.

 **Magicmirror: What? No, I'm not crazy. If I meet someone who knows me I would die of embarrassment.**

Jonouchi watched the screen of his cell bewildered by his response. After many nights of chatting, it was disappointing confirm how little he knew that guy. Although as far as he could read, he was not the only one.

 **Dominosxcboi: What you should be ashamed of? So they don't know you well...?**

Jonouchi drinked some of the water that had almost forgotten. He refreshed the page three consecutive times, wondering to himself if he had just annihilated the "relationship" they had. At the fourth time he updated, the new message notification appeared.

 **New friendship request: underman would like to be your friend. You can visit his profile to accept or reject his request via the link below.**

Jonouchi deleted the message. He got requests like this daily; ten... or sometimes he even received twice that many. From people who didn't even reside in Japan. From people who did not even understand his language. And from people who, after having been accepted, would not write him again.

 **Magicmirror: Don't be ridiculous. You know what I mean.**

"Ridiculous...?" Jonouchi repeated aloud. Of course he knew what he meant: the guy was ashamed to acknowledge he was gay to his family and friends, which in modern times was absurd. But calling gim ridiculous for a message which had not been a grievance was inadmissible.

 **Dominosxcboi: So you are the kind of man who hides within four walls to do what he likes because he can't accept himself and he is afraid of others wouldn't accept him neither!**

Irritated Jonouchi decided to stand at his level and tell him some truths. Above all because he was frustrated due to the way in which this conversation unfolded.

And to round his discomfort he received a new request.

 **New friendship request: ...**

"Shit" he murmured while he deleted the message. Another day, with another spirit, he would have taken the time to visit the user's profile to see if at least he was from Japan.

 **Magicmirror: Again, don't be silly. I didn't enter this chat or write you because I wanted to find someone to walk hand in hand through a field with flowers, get married and live happily ever. I'm not into these fags' crap.**

Jonouchi was astounded by that answer. Since when did "liveing happily ever after" was a "fags' crap"? Since when was wanting to meet someone personally a "fags' crap"? This guy had been a total waste of time.

 **Dominosxcboi: So then why the fuck did you write me?**

Having sent the message, Jonouchi decided to remove him from his friends and not answer him anymore. Although on second thought, he could send him a message filled with insults to appease his anger. Or send it to someone else, incidentally. Perhaps, to an author of those annoying requests.

When he was opening his profile to delete him, he noticed a new notification of a new message appeared.

 **New friendship request: Setockr would like to be your friend. You can visit his profile to accept or reject his request via the link below.**

Jonouchi opened the link. They say that the third time's the charm, so the third request to the button was to be the victim of his fury. So the notification of a new message interposed again.

 **Magic Mirror: What? Haha... Why rather than offend, you don't ask for your porn pics?**

"Porn pics...?" he muttered. His photos weren't pornographic. The least demure pic he had published was a photo of his entire body with bare torso.

 **Dominosxcboi: There aren't porn pics, asshole. Fuck you.**

When he sent, a warning appeared with the text "You do not have permission to send this message." That bastard had blocked him.

He went back and refreshed the page. There was nothing worse than arguing with someone and then he leaves you when you had an insult at the tip of your tongue. It was so unfair.

Focusing on the screen, he saw that had opened the profile of Setockr. Jonouchi remembered that he had planned to get even with him and he still intended to. He scrolled down looking for the option to send message, but stopped when he noticed some data. "Registered 13 minutes ago", "Friends List (0)" and "Location: Tokyo, Japan."

Jonouchi laughed at the situation. It was not fair taking insults out on someone who had just registered and who had the decency to add friends from your country.

Jonouchi scrolled down till "Accept request" and clicked it.

"Today is not your unlucky day, it is mine," he told himself as he returned to his profile to disconnect.

 **Setockr: Hello, thanks you for accepting me. My name is Seto. I added you because I am from Domino too, although a year and half ago I moved to Tokyo.**

"I'm glad. Another day you can tell me" he mutter while he logged off his account and left the cell under his pillow, barely more relaxed.


	2. Session I: Amane's POV

**Network Masks – Stage I**

Written by: Agneta Steam

Beta Reader: BreakfastForLife 12/09/16

Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! Belongs to me, and it is no longer owned by Kazuki Takahashi.

Clarifications: This is an Alternative Universe. Story partially inspired by real events and partly inspired by the movie "The Truman Show". It will consist of four stages (or five, I'm still deciding). The personalities of the characters are not going to be such as the anime / manga, and some family relationships and ages will be modified. Thank you for reading.

 **Session I:**

 **Amane's POV**

Amane arrived at her brother's house in less than ten minutes, which was great because it meant that she still had half an hour to see the new chapter of the anime she was following. Actually she had twenty minutes before the next subject started, though losing ten of the chemistry class didn't bother her. She needed a seven to past it and so far her rating was nine, so there was nothing to worry about.

Her brother allowed her to use the computer-she did not have one in her house-while he finished revealing some pictures, but not before warning her that in half hour he was going to need it. He also clear that he did not believe her philosophy teacher was absent so many times.

Amane did not care and without wasting more time she opened the video. The internet Ryou had was very slow, so she decided to wait till it was loaded about five minutes and meanwhile she checked her mail.

The video she wanted to see loaded slowly and was very annoying. Her inbox was filled with spam which was more annoying.

She decided to use those free minute to see what's up with her friends from the chat. It was a mobile site, but it could also be viewed on a desktop computer. Besides, she didn't have credit on her mobile.

 **New friendship request: Setockr would like to be your friend. You can visit his profile to accept or reject his request via the link below.**

Amane opened the link to review the information. This was a guy from Tokyo, of 19 years old and with a single friend. She frowned when she noticed he had no profile pictures or a site with his own photos.

 **Amane17: Hello**

She sent him; still not accepting the friendship request.

She checked the video. There was just loaded a stretch of about thirty seconds. And they had drained her three of the five minutes. Why her brother could not afford an internet plan with a decent speed?

She went back to the chat.

 **Setockr: Hello, how are you? My name is Seto. I added you because I'm from Domino too, although a year and half ago I moved to Tokyo.**

Amane shook her head while writing the answer. She had forgotten that she had this information in her profile.

 **Amane 17: Well, Seto. I'm Amane. The truth is that I'm not at Domino yet. I live in Nagasaki. I'm moving to Domino next year, my father got a great job there.**

Her five minutes passed by and the video had just loaded a lower section to one minute.

She thought about whether it'd be better to keep waiting or download and watch it on her cell phone later. The chapter would last at least twenty-four minutes. It was definitely the best option and she proceeded to download it.

 **Setockr: You're from Nagasaki? Wow... I always wanted to know how is it to live in a place where an atomic bomb fell.**

"This idiot" she muttered. If that was his best topic for conversation, Amane had not the slightest interest in it. He could see a documentary on the matter and not make her lose her precious time.

 **Amane17: The bomb did not "fall", it was launched by the Americans; okay? Ignorant.**

Besides, this guy was not identified with a photo. Amane already wanted to exterminate him. And worst of all was that he responded immediately.

 **Setockr: Well... They were not all Americans. Anyway, excuse me. My curiosity led me to express it wrong. I didn't mean to offend you**

Amane re-read the message a bit impressed. "Excuse me" and "I didn't mean to offend you" were not very common phrases among boys of nineteen she knew. In comparison, this Seto was an eccentric. Then she remembered that, according to his profile, he had been registered for sixteen hours.

 **Amane17: Did you just sign in?**

She was going to get a bit further this conversation while she waited for her discharge to be completed, though it was barely five percent. But she would not continue with the subject of atomic bombs. Who would want to chat about these tragedies?

 **Setockr: Yesterday at night, in fact. How do you know?**

Seto had a decent internet plan or a modern cell. That would explain why he responded so quickly.

Amane checked his profile again and she noticed the fact that he only had a friend. She visited the profile of this guy and saw that it was a boy from Domino, twenty two years old and in whose profile picture his torso was naked. And his only clothing was a towel wrapped on his hip. Besides, his alias was "Dominosxcboi."

"What vulgar" she thought as she checked his list of friends. Most of such friends were men whose nickname referred to their sexual orientation. Seemingly, while the user was from Domino, Seto was ok.

 **Amane 17: Let's say I concluded it because you have one only friend. That your profile has a text which says 'Registered 16 hours ago' has nothing to do.**

Amane often enjoyed answer sarcastically. What she did not enjoy was that in ten minutes it had downloaded just seven percent of her video.

 **Setockr: Haha. And I was believing that you had guessed it.**

 **Amane17: Why don't you have a miserable profile picture?**

The question came up because Amane was very strict when it came to adding or accepting friends. She knew about the negative reputation of the site, best known for the great volume of 'sex chats' and pornographic advertising. There were others Internet sites most suitable for mobile, but they did not load well in her cell phone. So this was all that was left, the only site for which the Internet of her cell phone served. That if she had credit.

But not everything was negative. The site allowed you to create pages with images, songs and even low-resolution videos to download on any device. For someone with a depressing plan this site was great.

 **Setockr: I'm not obligated to post pictures. I'm looking for people from Domino, like me. I have found very few for now ... And an important part of them says that they're not really from there…**

Amane looked at the screen, puzzled. Finding people from Domino did not seem a sufficient reason; less in a website like that. It even sounded ridiculous.

 **Amane 17: I told you I will be. And read me very well. If you truly want me to accept your request, you should publish your face, because I do not chat with blue faces without facial features.**

Sometimes it was better to put the record straight from the start.

Twelve percent. Fifteen minutes.

"Hell."

 **Setockr: Why not?**

 **Amane17: Because I won't accept you and I will block you. I don't chat with people who do not exist. I have to have proof that you are real. Did you see my profile picture?**

Amane had published several pictures of anime and two personal photos, because as she demanded to know who was on the other side of the screen, she also wanted her "friends" knew who she was.

 **Setockr: Yes**

 **Amane17: How am I?**

Fifteen percent. Eighteen minutes. If only her brother would not have to leave early to college... Maybe if he still was at home when she left the high school, the download would have been completed and she could move it to the phone.

 **Setockr: You're young and pretty. But that is not decisive for me to write you. I would do it, anyway. (Did I already convince you to accept me?)**

"Yes, Seto. Everybody suits you well" she thought as she remembered that his only friend was that 'Dominosxcboi'. Had Seto inspected his profile, like her, before adding him?

 **Amane17: Even if I were a nazi?**

Twenty minutes. Seventeen measly percent.

 **Setockr: Yes... I guess... Or should I behave like a nazi with a nazi?**

Amane laughed.

 **Amane17: Well, how do you look like? I mean... physically. Don't tell me that you're young and pretty, please.**

The clarification was to prevent that Seto would respond with a vague description.

 **Setockr: Let's see ... I'm white ... brown hair ... my height is 1.75 or something approx... Is this necessary?**

 **Amane17: Of course not. Just upload a profile picture and it will save you such an effort. As you can see it is not the same if I say I have white hair and green eyes that if you see a picture mine where you note the texture of my skin, if my hair has waves with or without fizz, if it is dry or hydrated, if my teeth are large, if they are bent, if I use brackets, if my nose is like pork or eagle, or is flattened ... my moles ... In short, is it the same?**

Amane leaned back in her chair. Why was he skidding around the issue? If his phone was so good to answer her in just seconds it should also be to take pictures.

 **Setockr: No, it's not the same. But for me it's not relevant.**

"Who the hell asked you if it was relevant to you or not?"

"Amane" Ryou leans out at the doorway, "I need to use the PC."

She checked her watch. Twenty-five minutes. Nineteen percent.

"Just five minutes more?" she begged.

"All right, all right. Only five minutes and nothing more" and he returned to his darkroom.

 **Amane17: But to me it is. What is it about? Are you so ugly? Do you break your camera when you try to photograph yourself? Or in reality you are a woman pretending to be a man?**

She didn't really care if he was attractive or not; she just wanted to have a face to insert into her imagined Seto's reactions for messages like this, for example.

 **Setockr: Okay, I give up. I will upload one later. Is it good enough for you?**

 **Amane 17: I'll give you a truce just because you're new, right? If within thirty six hours your photo is not published I will reject your request and I will block you. And better don't try to fool me because I'll know if you published a photo of a celebrity.**

Twenty minutes. Twenty two percent. It was clear that the other seventy-eight percent won't be discharged in two minutes. What was her father awaiting to buy her an own computer?

 **Setockr: It is fair. I will delete it after you see.**

"Will you delete it?" she thought. Seto seemed increasingly rare. Why the mystery? Why such discretion?

"Amane, your time is over. And you have class"

Her brother stood at her side.

"I have one minute left" she lied.

Ryou began to walk from side to side of the room.

 **Amane 17: I'm dying to know why you want to delete it but my brother is crying desperately to me to allow him to use the PC. So I'll disconnect.**

She looked glanced at her brother only to confirm that he were not spying what she wrote. He wasn't.

She pressed F5 several times.

 **Setockr: Is he a child?**

Seto and his questions…

 **Amane17: My brother? Haha, he is your age. I'm leaving. You better fulfill your word or it's going to be the last time I write you.**

Suddenly Ryou was behind her, making a rhythmic noise on the floor with his foot.

Thirty-three minutes. Twenty six percent.

"Can I let this downloading? If you are still here when I leave class, then I will copy it to my cell."

"Agreed. Now leave." Her brother started to push her several times. Amane laughed and took her backpack.


	3. Session I: Pegasus POV

**Network Masks – Stage I**

Written by: Agneta Steam

Beta Reader: BreakfastForLife 03/10/16

Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! Belongs to me, and it is no longer owned by Kazuki Takahashi.

Clarifications: This is an Alternative Universe. Story partially inspired by real events and partly inspired by the movie "The Truman Show". It will consist of four stages (or five, I'm still deciding). The personalities of the characters are not going to be such as the anime / manga, and some family relationships and ages will be modified. Thank you for reading.

 **Session I:**

 **Pegasus' POV**

Pegasus, after discussing with his assistant the agenda of the next day, locked himself in his office to review the latest mails of the day. There wasn't a lot of emails. He had often before received proposals for events, promotions, etc. for the pub, of which he was manager. He pressed the command "Send and receive" button of Outlook, wishing to get it over and go to his apartment, even if he knew that no one was waiting him there.

He looked at the remaining minutes till the email was downloaded, 25 minutes. Apparently someone had sent an email with attachments of forty-three megabytes. The truth was he wanted to turn off the computer and get out, leaving those emails for the next day, but his sense of responsibility would not allow him. What if after downloading this file, there were other very urgent messages?

Pegasus leaned back in his chair and pulled out his cell phone from his pocket and entered the chat. This way the fifteen mins of waiting would not result so slowly and perhaps he even got someone to spend the night with.

Barely logged in, he received a friendship request from "Setockr". He checked his profile before adding him. Pros: he was a nineteen years. Cons: he was from Tokyo, Japan. He had registered the day before and he had a single friend. Pegasus accepted him without much interest. Perhaps he spoke English, at least. But his first priority was to see who of his young New Yorkers friend was online.

 **"Setockr: Hello, my name is Seto. I was wondering myself what would you think about the atomic bomb dropped by you, Americans, over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.**

One cannot say that this message was the last thing Pegasus expected to receive in his life, no. But it was in the top five of the messages he hoped never receive.

The fact was that the topic did not bother him in the least, but he noticed a recriminatory tone in the way that the message had been written. As if Seto had a grudge against him for something that happened in his country when none of them both even exist.

 **Reflections28: If you are referring to the one the ruling government of my country decided to launch without consulting more than ninety-nine percent of the population, I think it was an atrocity. I am ashamed that the rich history of my country, a pioneer in many humanitarian issues, was tainted by such events. If I could change what happened I would, but obviously it is beyond my possibilities.**

For a moment the idea of eliminating Seto from its list of friends and even blocking him crossed his mind, but he dismissed it immediately because he did not give it that relevance. Besides, he was not upset; though a bit indignant.

 **Setockr: No, but you could find the way to remove the consequences that still remain. Do not worry; I have an opinion very similar to yours. I just needed to prove that I was right. Thank you.**

"What?"

Had he been the subject of some kind of experiment? Pegasus did not know whether it was worse to be indignant or have been used for who knows what.

 **Reflections28: That you were right?**

Pegasus asked because he was curious about what the happy experiment was about. What did Seto to see how many Americans felt responsible for what happened? Did he want to see if they got mad?

 **Setockr: Exact. I mean, I was trying to prove myself that if asked an US citizen randomly, I would have a similar answer to you opinion.**

Pegasus glanced at the monitor. It was almost finishing downloading the mails.

 **Reflections28: Is that all?**

So he was indignant because a feigned situation to see his reaction. Suddenly he wondered if this Seto would be able to make that kind of "test" without a computer involved.

 **Setockr: Well... Yes, I suppose so. Actually I was looking for people from Domino haha… But I can have Yankees friends also. It's not as if I believed that we are a superior race...**

"I do not know" he said to himself dismayed.

 **Reflections28: I cannot believe it... So you've added me just to ask me about something that happened when I wasn't born?**

Pegasus thought how absurd the situation was. Something told him that there was something else. He took his time to inspect Seto's profile again, and that other friend he had.

 **Setockr: Haha... It is a very original reason, don't you think?**

"Perfect" he concluded. If this Seto believed he could do experiments with whom he wanted, Pegasus too.

 **Reflections28: What I thought was that you added me because you're gay and you like mature men.**

"Let's see how you react" he said smirking. That would be fun.

He reviewed the mails; it was an announcement of a new line of cocktail drinks. Surely the designer of the banner was a rookie, because it generated a bitmap with a very large resolution, unsuitable for mail.

That was all he had.

He focused again on his cell phone.

 **Setockr: I can't imagine how you came to that conclusion...**

Pegasus laughed figuring out how might feel Seto. Would he be angry? Offended? Indignant?

 **Reflections28: Because you just joined a site mostly for 'sex chats' and your first two friends are men older than you, both gays. And because you enjoy drawing attention of them with crazy things, like you tried to do with me.**

Pegasus knew that he would never say those things personally. He just was "experiencing" because the internet so permitted, preserving his identity. He was not the only one.

 **Setockr: I also have a friend younger than me... but she will not add me until I upload a photo of myself.**

"So you are in the denial stage, huh? Ha ha"

 **Reflections28: You don't need to justify so much. I admit, your way to start conversation was very original. But can't fool me, I know a lot of guys going through the same stage as you.**

Pegasus wondered how Seto would look, until he remembered that all Japanese "look the same".

 **Setockr: Actually, I have no problems relating to older / younger men than me, I am very sociable, haha. But not everything has to be sexual.**

"Naive" he thought.

 **Reflections28: Everything is sexual on this site.**

Without waiting for Seto respond, Pegasus saved his cell and he went to his apartment.


	4. Session I: Atem's POV

**Session I:**

 **Atem's POV**

Atem arrived at the pizzeria kicking little stones on the road. Five days ago he had won two tickets to the cinema, film at the choice, and since then he had been insisting Shizuka to go. Shizuka found an excuse at every opportunity, but today was the day that the tickets due.

They agreed that he passed looking for her at nine o'clock at night, so they had time to dinner something before leaving. The chosen film started at quarter past ten, and until quarter past twelve the next function would not start.

As he walked in he saw his girlfriend with maiden apron still taking the order at a table occupied by five young men. Then he approached with the hope that this would be the last she would attend.

Shizuka, with menu, notebook and pencil in hand turned around and smiled at him. With her head she made a move for him to follow her into the kitchen. Atem followed her, looking at his way how all the tables were occupied and a lot of them without having ordered yet.

"We'll have to wait a little" she said without looking at him, while she extended the note to one of the cookers. "I have to help here and I have to stay. My mother left. She will come back in half an hour."

"It is not supposed to be your brother who works at night? Why are you doing it?"

Shizuka walked toward another table as she explained.

"Not today. I do not know what's wrong with him. He came from the Academy and he locked himself in his room. Since this morning he has a terrible mood."

Atem was furious; since two weeks they didn't go anywhere and that day they finally could Jonouchi had to ruin everything. It was very clear that the responsibility was not hers, who didn't want to leave her mother alone, so he swallowed his anger and offered help.

"Great," Shizuka returned to the kitchen with him following her paces, "you can attend the cash register."

Atem stopped in his tracks.

"I was referring to help you with orders" he said.

Shizuka said high so those working in the kitchen heard.

"I do not think so. The chefs always complain that your handwriting is not understood." Her comment generated laughs in the whole sector, leaving Atem very clear that this was everyone's opinion. In no mood to argue, he insisted.

"Then I will deliver them."

"No, no, no" the youngest chef named Akiko left her task to watch him up and down mockingly. "I will not cook each order twice because you dump it to customers in their cloths."

And more laughter resounded. Atem could not believe that they exaggerated that way. That happened only once and it was the first time he had met the family of his girlfriend, so he was naturally nervous.

"Better you attend the register."

Shizuka took him by the shoulders and led him next to the cash register. Before he could say anything, she went to one of the many tables that were left.

After ten minutes passed and Shizuka did not approach even once looking for change, Atem took his cell and entered the chat. He didn't have private messages or comments on his site, so with nothing better to do he entered the public chat. It was not a comfortable page to chat, being a public site, messages were interspersed and it was difficult to follow a conversation. Atem preferred private messages. But the good thing about the public chat was that whatever you wrote there would be seen by almost everyone connected.

 **DominoChampion: Good night. Here is the link to my site completely dedicated to the selection team of Domino. There are images of the main players. Visit and comment, please.**

One of the things he liked most of the chat was the possibility of building sites. His cell was not very good, the few images and songs that he possessed had been downloaded from there.

He had been registered more than one year in that chat and he had known about thirty people Domino. And he had almost practically compelled to all of them to comment on his site about the local selection team. He returned his attention to the local, noticing the silence that was suddenly generated. It was because of Jonouchi, who stormed out into the street.

 _"Damned."_

Without giving him more attention, Atem looked in his friend list if anyone was connected. Then a notification appeared reporting him a new comment on his site.

 **Setockr: Great good site I always remember this match. It was the most exciting game I ever saw. Come on, Domino! Greetings from Tokyo!**

The comment was of the user "Setockr" and it had been left in an image of one player about to kick a penalty. It was one of the last matches of the Qualifying selections of Japanese states. The six teams that won more points in a first stage of an all against all round were classified to a final round to define the champion. That game had been definitory for Domino, because draw or lose meant no chance of qualifying. The match had finished in a draw one to one at the ninety minutes, and in the second minute of the three additional, the referee sanctioned a penalty for Domino, which converted by the captain determined the victory of these passed the time. So it was remembered as a feat by fans of the selection which eventually was ranked the sixth and qualified to the hexagonal to dispute the following year.

 **Dominochampion: Hi, thanks for commenting on my site. I'm glad you like it. Are you from Domino?**

That was the first comment on his site that he did not have to beg someone to write it. It was at least one good thing in a day of bad luck.

"I need change."

Shizuka placed the count above the phone screen and in her eyes appeared a reproachful for being paying attention to mobile and not to the box.

"Okay," he began to calculate the change. It was not his fault he was sent there, where there was nothing to do. He gave her change and Shizuka quickly deliver it. At least she wanted to end soon too.

 **Setockr: Hi. I'm from Domino, yes. Although since a year and half I'm living in Tokyo. It's great to find people from Domino; I checked yesterday and found almost none.**

 _"Tokyo."_

Atem knew that for residents of small and unknown states like Domino, the capital and its habitants generated some antipathy. He had noted with several people in the chat, so if Seto fulfilled this trend, living in Tokyo should be torture for him.

 **Dominochampion: Why did you move to Tokyo?**

While he waited the return of Shizuka to the box, Atem reviewed the profile of Setockr. He was nineteen - two years older than himself - so when Domino won his last championship Seto would had five years. Perhaps he even remembered something. Atem just had three and he obviously did not remember anything.

 **Setockr: I had to move in with my father who works here. I had no place to stay in Domino. The nice thing about being here is that when the hexagonal starts and we win to Tokyo being local, I'll see the match, haha.**

That was true. The hexagonal would be played in the capital after twenty-four years. And Seto predicted that history would repeat itself and Domino will be crowned at the capital state. He liked this guy more and more.

 **Dominochampion: I'd love to see that haha. They always believe they're champions before playing. Although they thrashed us in the Qualifying Stage...**

The score had been three to zero. The worst game of the Domino team, whose captain was sent off just five minutes after the game started. Luckily Atem did not know any capital living in Domino.

 **Setockr: Don't remind me that. You do not know how they bragged with that game. They were unbearable, more than usual. But this time is going to be different. It is a decisive stage. The qualifying always costs us and we classify suffering. But in the Final Stage... rare time we did not stay on the podium.**

What Seto just expressed was like the football related persons defined the game of the Domino selection. Classifying barely and emboldened in the final instances. Unlike the capitals, people were not shouting Domino victory before the championship started. But secretly, having classified, they believed their team was able to accomplish any feat.

 **Dominochampion: You got that right. They must be world champions in winning tournaments before even playing them.**

"My mother had returned."

Shizuka was beside him taking off her apron. Atem hadn't noticed her until he heard her talk. He checked the time. Still quarter to quarter past ten. If rushing the walk, they would arrive in time.

"I'm going to the bathroom and then we left."

Correction. If they ran they'll arrive in time.

 **New friendship request: Setockr would like to be your friend. You can visit his profile to accept or reject his request via the link below.**

 **Setockr: And we are world champions in ruining parties haha.**

After that last message Atem decided to "sign" him for his selection of friends accepting the request.

 **Dominochampion: You're right. Let's hope so. I'm going out with my girlfriend, I hope she finally leave the bathroom in time, haha. Have a good time.**

 **Setockr: Okay, you have fun. Although if you want to leave in time you should hit the door, haha bye...**

Atem decided to do it. Once he had free tickets he wasn't going to waste them.


	5. Session II: Atem POV

**Network Masks – Stage I**

Written by: Agneta Steam

Beta Reader: BreakfastForLife 15/02/17

Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! Belongs to me, and it is no longer owned by Kazuki Takahashi.

Clarifications: This is an Alternative Universe. Story partially inspired by real events and partly inspired by the movie "The Truman Show". It will consist of four stages (or five, I'm still deciding). The personalities of the characters are not going to be such as the anime / manga, and some family relationships and ages will be modified. Thank you for reading.

 **Session II:**

 **Atem's POV**

Atem sat on the floor in the new empty office. He was a bit annoyed at having to be the one to stay. Luckily, he had the headphones in his backpack to hear a radio sport program. The journalists from "The last one to the arc" –program's name- debated about which of the two major Domino League teams arrived in a better way to the classic confrontation. As Atem expected, they all agreed that both teams had not had a good performance in what was of the championship, and they agreed that it was a classic and in classics there is no favorites to win. But to his surprise, one of the commentators argued that while Athletic Domino had a coach willing to an extremely defensive tactic to win with kickback approach, the Domino Football Club had a coach that always prioritized the good game focused on the rival's arch, even neglecting their own.

Atem was bothered by the announcement and he switched off the radio of his cell. He totally agreed with what they had said, it was an evident detail. What were the managers of D.F.C. thinking when they hired this guy?

He looked carefully the screen of his mobile phone, groggy. He had sent a message to Shizuka, even knowing that she would be in class and she could not answer. He also sent a text message to his cousin, who at that hour would be helping his grandfather to attend the game store. It did not get many customers, unless some new game was in its time of splendor. But at present that was not the case and Atem considered that work as the most boring in the world.

However, comparing these two situations, at least Yugi could talk with his grandfather, listening to music, watching TV and even playing games. He just had his cell.

He decided to enter the chat, at least until his girlfriend or his cousin would respond, if they did. He entered the public chat and posted the link to his site, as usual. Then he remembered Seto and the conversation about football they had. Atem saw he was connected in his friends, so he was encouraged to write him.

 **Dominochampion: Hello friend. I'm writing to talk about football because I'm bored.**

He was pleasantly surprised when Seto answered immediately. Why couldn't Shizuka do this? If there was an average of time it takes her to answer each message, it was about twenty minutes. And at times as annoying as that, it was more depressing.

 **Setockr: What are you doing?**

 **Dominochampion: Nothing interesting, I waiting on my coworkers to bring some things for our job place. That's why I put that I'm bored!**

Atem reviewed the rest of his friends. A girl from Domino was also connected, she had his age, and she was always insinuating that they should go out. She had added him and they chatted often. She had told him that she dreamed being a cop like her brother, her cousin, her father, her uncle and her grandfather. That scared him.

 **Setockr: I'm bored too. I have to do a thing to which I committed, but it does not end to convince me. Where do you work?**

Atem wondered for a moment who Seto would be. Someone who promised to do things he did not want to, sounded like someone docile, spineless, who prioritized the wishes or opinions of others over his own. He did not like such persons.

He immediately thought to himself that he was jumping to conclusions.

 **Dominochampion: I work in a radio station, I'm operator. Also I have my own program, but I only limit myself to spend good music and some audience orders... I'm not a broadcaster.**

He wasn't broadcaster not because he didn't want to. On the radio, they considered he was too young to host a program of interaction with the public, information or opinion. They were always telling him he was still too green for that.

 **Setockr: At your age that sounds like a great job. I do not understand how you get bored.**

It was true, the work was infinitely better than working at the game store or at Shizuka's mother pizzeria. But the problem was that today he was not working. Because what he was doing could not be considered work. It was loitering. Unwittingly.

 **Dominochampion: Yes, we are moving and they left me waiting at the new location. Until they come and we unload and arrange all I can't go and I have a long wait ...**

To be carrying things in the moving truck was a thousand times better than what he was doing. The silver lining was that they weren't moving often.

 **Setockr: What team you're a fan of? I am of Domino Football Club.**

Domino League had eight teams competing. The population could be classified as a forty-five percent of DFC fans, forty-five percent of Athletic Domino supporters, five percent of supporters of the other six teams -among which could curiously be distinguished many sports journalists, because there were not fan journalists from the first two- and five percent of people who did not follow at all or just did not like football.

Some statistical studies argue that the amount of Athletic Domino fans was a majority, but Atem considered them totally inaccurate and biased.

 **Dominochampion: Me too. Did you know the classic is within three weeks?**

From thirty Domino friends he had, two thirds were D.F.C. fans. And Atem accepts everyone, so he considered this distribution an objective reality, though inaccurate. The important thing was that D.F.C. fans were more.

 **Setockr: Of course I know. What kind of fan do you think I am?**

The Domino selection was followed by the residents of Domino that were abroad. It was one of the few things that kept them tied to their place of origin. What Atem had found out was that with local teams it didn't always happen.

 **Dominochampion: How do you see it?**

 **Setockr: We're going to win, of course. Or had I to put the sports journalist record and say that 'It's a classic and in classics there's no favorite'?**

Atem laughed aloud. His laugh reverberating in the empty room.

 **Domino Champion: True, they always say the same thing and do not risk a winner. But we are playing bad and Athletic too. Although I am the first wanting to win, there's nothing that gives me certainty that we will do. We play so horrible...**

Atem was very opinionated about the game objectively. He wanted his team to triumph, yes. But it would not do that if it did not correct what was doing wrong; and he did not like to ignore what was worked wrong. At first reading, Seto seemed an unconditional fan. Such supporters ignored the team errors and they were always optimistic. Atem thought the blow of defeat had greater impact on them, since they did not anticipate it.

 **Setockr: Uh... Did you write to tell me how horrible you think we are? That's too boring...**

 **Dominochampion: We are not at our best; don't expect much optimism from me**

The tournament was played every six months, in a round of all against all, home and away match. In short, the teams face each other four times a year. And both champions returned to play in a final match to define the annual champion. So far, ten dates of the second half had been played in which the Athletic Domino had won more points. It also influences the pessimism that emanated from Atem regarding the next confrontation.

 **Setockr: We have been worse. The last classic that I watched before I moved; we lost four to one, the next three to zero. And the next we lost four to two. We've been worse...**

Atem was remembering each of the games Seto was mentioning as he read, and each time it was more frustrating. Three consecutive defeats and almost all thrashed; although some experts football historians believed that thrashings were if the goal difference was four or more. While this was a classic and classics had no favorites, recent statistics favored the C.A.D. And Seto claiming that they were not worse...

 **Dominochampion: Not that we are better! Besides this couch is obsessed with playing nice, and what matters to me is to win, not playing nice! He, as long as the team would make goals, leaves us without goalkeeper so he goes to make a rabona at the opponent's area.**

This point was the one who makes him most nervous of all: the new coach. He always wanted to be the protagonist.

 **Setockr: You should have him more patience since he arrived we are unbeaten, haha...**

Atem did not understand from where Seto drawn so much hope...

 **Dominochampion: Two games.**

 **Setockr: Won.**

The first was won from behind, two to one, when the other team had started winning by a defensive error and the game was almost ending. The goals were scored from detained balls, the players luckily had not obeyed the couch and they began to play "ball blows". The second was won with a goal in offside wrongly called by the referee.

 **Dominochampion: Barely and luckily.**

Classics are not won by luck.

 **Setockr: They are worth three points too.**

"Don't tell me" he thought. He did not know what was less bearable: if journalists who, still repeating phrases made, at least agreed with him or Seto, who seemed more fan of the couch than the team.

 **Dominochampion: I know. But we're though all the game with the sensation that our rivals are going to convert at any time.**

Traditionally, the supporter of C.A.D. was more identified with a fierce football, many mark and pressure. The team assembled from back to front, giving priority to zero at the own goal. When the team wins from behind and over the end time it was said to have won faithful to its history. Instead, supporters of D.F.C. had a more exquisite taste. One could say that they like to watch good soccer and goals product of triangulations, passes and luxuries were celebrated much more than a goal from a corner. Perhaps that explained why Seto was so enthusiastic with this new coach. But Atem wanted to win. Always. Whatever it takes.

 **Setockr: And I have the sensation that we are going to score every minute. It seems we had been seeing different games haha...**

That was another point which disturbed him. The team wasted many goals. And in football was a phrase that always was fulfilled: missed goals are received goals.

 **Dominochampion: No, leave it. With all the goals that we miss I want to kill myself. And more with each time the guy walks in programs saying that 'we had more chances to score', 'we arrived more times to the area' ... Yes, but if they got to you three times and score two goals and we only one from fifteen chances, you should accept that something is not right.**

Undoubtedly he was a very special couch. As a player he had also been an issue...

 **Setockr: No way, no? We're going to be champions. I assure you!**

The chances of becoming champions were minimal for D. F. C., and even winning the remaining four games, they still depended on other results. Seto was a dreamer. Confirmed.

 **Dominochampion: If only... I am the first who wants to be in the championship.**

 **Setockr: Did you hear the version of the anthem in rock style?**

Atem was surprised by the sudden change of subject, and he did not know what Seto meant.

 **Dominochampion: No, no idea. Send me the link.**

What anthem? Japan's?

 **Setockr: I did not upload it here. But I will later. I'm going offline now...**

 **Dominochampion: Okay, I'm going to help to unload things.**

Atem closed his cell phone he began to think of a bet he could have with Seto. One about whether their team's coach would help them win the championship or not but he soon dismissed the idea.


	6. Session II: Amane POV

**Network Masks – Stage I**

Written by: Agneta Steam

Beta Reader: BreakfastForLife 17/02/17

Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! Belongs to me, and it is no longer owned by Kazuki Takahashi.

Clarifications: This is an Alternative Universe. Story partially inspired by real events and partly inspired by the movie "The Truman Show". It will consist of four stages (or five, I'm still deciding). The personalities of the characters are not going to be such as the anime / manga, and some family relationships and ages will be modified. Thank you for reading.

 **Session II:**

 **Amane's POV**

Amane left the classroom at high speed, not wanting to cross with the philosophy teacher in the hall. Philosophy was a course that she preferred to attend as least as possible.

She crossed in front of the direction and she looked in without forethought. The teacher had her eyes on her. That wasn't good.

Even so she kept walking towards the canteen to recharge the battery on her phone. She paid with the money her father had given her for a lunch. During the whole week she had not bought anything, so she gathered a good amount. Besides, she did not consider it appropriate to eat what was cooked in those unhygienic conditions.

She sat on one of the tables and she entered the chat.

She had fifteen new unread messages. Of those, ten were foreign friend requests. She erased them all without intention of wasting time with that. She replied the other five that were from her friends. Some were responses from previous conversations of which she had disconnected, and others starting a new one.

She was bored and in the chat there was nothing that promised fun.

Perhaps the best thing was attending class after all, especially when the teacher knew she was there. Once she had dared to call her father and Amane preferred that would not be repeated.

She returned to the classroom while two minutes of her free period still remained. She sat in the back of the room and reviewed the chat friends list. There were two users connected; they were very funny guys, who shared common interests with her, but she had no interest in chatting with them now. If they sent messages she would answer, but there was nothing she wanted to send them.

Amane was about to close the mobile, when a pending friendship request notification appeared to her. It was from that "Setockr".

She recalled that he had no profile picture, and he would not accept him unless he had published one. At that moment the teacher was entering the classroom, and Amane placed the holster so she could not perceive the mobile on the desk. The teacher greeted the class with her hoarse voice, of exaggerated volume, and Amane wanted to retire immediately.

She focused on her cellphone to ignore her antipathy to the teacher. She visited Seto's profile to see if he had fulfilled her condition or not. To her surprise, he had one profile picture!

Amane increased the zoom of the picture with skepticism. Her brother was a photographer, among other things, and so she was very familiar with the characteristics that a professional photography presented. This was one. And it seemed a reproduction from a model catalog, a too handsome guy. That was not Seto.

Amane looked at the two girls who sat to her right. They spent the entire class talking about famous Americans and fashion. She did not like, but they could help her this time.

"Girls, do you know this celebrity?" she asked with a low voice and handed them the cell under the table.

One of them took it and she stared at the picture for a long time. The other leaned over to see it and she instantly snatched the phone from her hand. Excitedly she exclaimed, not caring that the whole class turned around to see her:

"You found the love of my life! I dreamed about him once and since then..."

"Shut up" her best friend interrupted while giving her a slap on the shoulder. Then, seeing the face of surprise from the attacked girl, she said. "Don't you see that Amane is going out with a celebrity who does not want to reveal his identity?"

Amane took out the phone, totally irritated by the comments that the whole class had heard. And the last straw was that the teacher heard too, and she walked toward her seat.

How stupid and reckless she had been! Those two big-mouthed could not help in anything...

"Amane, give me your electronic. I'll return it to you when the class is over," she said-shouted seriously.

Amane did not believe she would return it without any repercussions. For a moment she imagined that the teacher would take her mobile and expose to the whole class what site she was visiting. That was a nightmare that she would rather avoid. Then she realized how lucky she was that her two classmates had not noticed that detail.

"I will keep it in my bag" she suggested in under the insistent gaze of the teacher.

She turned around and returned to the front, but for the remaining time of the class she had been watching Amane more closely.

The bell rang and all the students scurried from the classroom, followed by the teacher.

Amane picked her cell phone again and she sent a message to Seto, without accepting the request yet.

 **Amane 17: Hello Seto. I saw you uploaded a photo as we agreed. Is it really yours...?**

At that moment Seto was disconnected, so she would not receive his immediate response. When she put her phone in her backpack to retire, one of the girls who saw the photo said:

"Can you send me the photo by Bluetooth? Maybe if I show it to other girlfriends they would recognize him ..."

Amane felt that doing so was not right, but neither was that Seto had done. He had used a stranger's photo as his own, so she agreed.

Surely he will never know.


	7. Session II: Pegasus POV

**Network Masks – Stage I**

Written by: Agneta Steam

Beta Reader: BreakfastForLife 16/02/17

Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! Belongs to me, and it is no longer owned by Kazuki Takahashi.

Clarifications: This is an Alternative Universe. Story partially inspired by real events and partly inspired by the movie "The Truman Show". It will consist of four stages (or five, I'm still deciding). The personalities of the characters are not going to be such as the anime / manga, and some family relationships and ages will be modified. Thank you for reading.

 **Session II:**

 **Pegasus' POV**

Pegasus closed the office door loudly, making it clear to his employees that such incompetence was intolerable and that it was convenient for them not to disturb him again unless it was a matter of utmost urgency.

He leaned back in one of the chairs that decorated the corner, exhausted.

He needed advice in human resources. Several of the workers had obtained employment as a result of a favor. And for Pegasus it was not bad. The problem had arisen when after so long those employees were piling up an

d he ended up surrounded by people truly incapable of required tasks.

He had one hour until the end of his workday. He could leave earlier if he pleased; but his sense of responsibility would not allow him. He preached by example.

Moreover, he felt some delight by the discomfort that it caused his employees knowing that he was there and upset with them and that they would work with that pressure.

All the work for that day was done, but he still had ninety minutes free but with nothing to do.

Maybe he should reconsider leaving early. He knew many audacious young who lived alone. Which of them could he surprise early?

He pulled his phone from his pants' pocket in order to recall the recent exchanges he had with everyone, but the cell screen was activated and the contact with other things in his pocket had open the chat window. It was a touch screen mobile.

Pegasus saw he had an unread message. He had not logged in the chat for several days. He opened it.

 **Setockr: Because you are seeing it from that perspective…**

It took a few seconds for Pegasus to remember who this Setockr was and what they were chatting about. When he finally did, he chuckled. Seto apparently kept insisting with his supposed naivete regarding the homosexual connotation of his actions.

Pegasus pondered what to answer, if he did. What was the point in continuing this discussion with someone on the other side of the planet? While thinking about it, he slide his thumb up and down the mobile screen rhythmically. Doing this, he opened Setockr's profile unintentionally. He was going to go to the previous page when Pegasus realized that he had published a profile photo.

Pegasus zoomed in image and he analyzed it.

Seto was Japanese, because he was born there or because one of his parents was a Japanese abroad that at some point of Seto's childhood they had returned to their country of origin, so that this oriental feel.

But some of his physical characteristics revealed that one parent was of Caucasian descent. Not because of his blue eyes, because these could be contact lenses. But by the way his eyes didn't have epicanthic fold. Not because his head was elongated; Pegasus knew that unlike the other Asians, the Japanese face was not necessarily rounded. But by the way his cheekbones were not extended outward.

Such a combination made him attractive. Attractive but thousands of kilometers away.

 **Reflections28: Sexy.**

Pegasus left that comment on his profile picture and he closed the chat after noticing that now Seto had three friends, and the third was a man too, although younger.

He kept his cell phone in his pocket and went home to his apartment, leaving the employees end their workday much more relaxed.


	8. Session II: Jonouchi POV

**Network Masks – Stage I**

Written by: Agneta Steam

Beta Reader: BreakfastForLife 16/02/17

Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! Belongs to me, and it is no longer owned by Kazuki Takahashi.

Clarifications: This is an Alternative Universe. Story partially inspired by real events and partly inspired by the movie "The Truman Show". It will consist of four stages (or five, I'm still deciding). The personalities of the characters are not going to be such as the anime / manga, and some family relationships and ages will be modified. Thank you for reading.

 **Session II:**

 **Jonouchi's POV**

Jonouchi felt lightheaded. His sister and mother were speaking continuously of trivial matters, not wanting the silence to sweep into the dining room. He, however, would have given a fortune for them keep their mouths shut a few minutes.

In his work, the owners decided to establish a promotions day, which mostly consisted of discounts on the value of the garments. This meant that a lot of people crowd in the premises. The line at the checkout, people in the fitting room, customers who consulted him for sizes and prices all had tested his patience. And worst of all was that his companion's blood pressure lowered and she retreated to her home when the store had only been opened for two hours.

After leaving that martyrdom he went to the academy. The topic that the professor explained was not at all interesting; which did not help him when having to pay attention. He did not take any notes; he could get them from any of his peers.

When he arrived to the pizzeria, his mother gave him no break and reproached him the days he had not "complied", his mood in between, with his hours attending the pizzeria. He had no choice but to help her, and put up with questions from usual customers about his absence. If he had exams, if he had been ill, if he already had a girlfriend...

It was 09:30 o'clock at night and they were just having dinner. All he wanted to do was jump in his bed and rest, although he had no time to sleep.

Apparently neither did his mother and sister, and that conversation that they were having would last for a very long time.

"I'm going to sleep" he said rising.

"You go, sweet heart. Thanks for helping us."

His mother smiled in a way that left him with doubt about the genuineness of that appreciation. Because actually it sounded sarcastic.

After a very needed shower, Jonouchi jumped upon his bed and he covered from himself from head to toe with the sheet. As expected, sleep did not come easy to him and he ended up uncovering his face and staring at the ceiling, bored.

He took his cell and entered the chat, he had not entered the chat session for several days. He was disappointed, though only a little. The last event will serve him to prevent future bad experiences with the site users.

He was surprised to find that he had thirty-six new messages and seven comments in photos of his site. First he reviewed the comments; the great majority alluded to his physical attractiveness. Another few took the opportunity to promote their own sites.

Jonouchi was used to that kind of comments received daily in his pictures, somehow they fed his ego and made him feel confident. The trouble was that the great majority of such users were on site only for sex chats and not for serious things, that was what ultimately Jonouchi craved, something serious. It was very easy to register with fake profiles because the site didn't claim any verification by phone or email.

Jonouchi thanked every comments on his site quickly and he undertook the messages. It turned out an exhausting task as his recent workday. Many messages laden with sexual content, which was not surprising. Some friends who often chatted with him asked him how he was, surely they were worried for haven't saw him connected, that was his daily habit. Some recommendations or self-advertisements of sites. And too many tedious friendship requests.

He stared at the list of messages read without much interest as he was emptying his inbox. Until he came to that damned fight day. He opened the message from Setockr remembering everything that had happened that day, and he wondered if he would have made more friends. Then, with nothing better to do, he visited his profile. Setockr was connected and had gotten, besides himself, two more friends. They were all men and that made him wonder if Seto had added him just because Jonouchi was from Domino or because he wanted to establish contact with male users too. In other words, if he was -_also gay.

Seto had not created sites for the whole time he had been registered, so there was little to review. He was going back to the previous page when he realized that Seto had a profile picture. Hew enlarged the picture with a bit curious and then he was surprised. The doubt that the guy in the photo really was Setockr settled in his mind immediately.

The picture framed his face and part of his body. "Seto" posed leaning against the wall, hands in the pockets of his black jeans and one of her legs bent with the foot against the wall The boy in the picture was slim, but with defined muscles, although not the corpulent type. He was slender, but not tall; perhaps because he was still young. His skin was pale, flawless. His face was long and alluring, with a sharp chin. Something about the joint of his eyebrows, partly covered by a long brown bangs, and nose, long and narrow, gave his facial expression some severity. It would have been a serious expression, if not for the subtle curve of his lips.

 **Dominosxcboi: Are you the one in the picture?**

He sent the message seeing that Setockr was connected.

Jonouchi saved the picture in his cell phone and got out of bed. He searched the data cable in the drawers of the next table and he sat in front of the desktop computer. He copied the picture in the computer and then he entered a website consisting of a seeker of equal or similar images as the uploaded picture. Jonouchi uploaded the photography and he tested looking for identical images first. To his surprise, the tool does not throw results. Without giving up, he tried to scrutinize similar images. This time the search results listed images of men that Jonouchi inspected exhaustively.

None was he. The site was not fully effective, perhaps it was a little-known celebrity and that image was copied from personal accounts that the search engine could not access. And it could even be a doctored photo. Why not?

Jonouchi disconnected his phone, he turned off the computer and he went to bed, leaving his suspicions for analyze later.

Frustrated of not being able to sleep at half past one A.M, he updated the chat.

 **Setockr: Yes.**

Jonouchi thought for a moment, considering the possibility. Obviously, if he were using photo of someone else he would not admit it. But what if the picture really was his? Jonouchi could eventually ask him to upload a photo taken at the moment and even meet in person, so he continued the conversation considering the response of Seto as true until proven otherwise.

 **Dominosxcboi: Damn, boy. You're sexy!**

Why not admit it? If he uploaded a picture like that it was to draw attention and being flattered.

 **Setockr: Ha ha ... thanks.**

The joke? Jonouchi wondered how to intonate this message. How would Seto be? How would he talk? Because he could imagine Seto was arrogant and proud and interpret the message that way; or otherwise, that he was ignorant of his own appeal or humble about it. This second option... he found it impossible.

 **Dominosxcboi: I bet you hear that all the time.**

That seemed like a good way to see how Seto truly was, depending on his answer. Something like "Of course not" or "I do not really care about it" would sound like feigned modesty. Something "You can't imagine how much" or "Yes, all the time" would be a presumptuous response. On second thought, there was no answer that could convince him that Seto wasn't a conceited guy; perhaps that opinion was motivated by his expression in the photo or his supposed need to lie for bragging about something. Any of his assumptions leaded him to the same conclusion.

 **Setockr: It is not something that men often say to me, ha ha.**

When reading the message, he recalled that Seto had only three male friends. What was he looking for?

 **Dominosxcboi: How do you define yourself?**

What if the guy in the photography really was Setockr? What if women mentioned his attractiveness and it nauseated him, but men didn't? How should be interpreted his message? As a lament?

Jonouchi shook his head. He was assuming more than normal, Seto could be simply surprised or who knows what. Damn insomnia.

 **Setockr: What?**

If Seto was gay and entered the chat interested in men, he should know what he meant. Why turn a blind eye then?

 **Dominosxcboi: Are you're gay, straight or bi?**

For Jonouchi a thing as such bisexual did not exist. He believed that those who defined themselves as bisexuals simply were afraid of revealing their homosexuality openly.

 **Setockr: Oh, that. For quite some time that I have a relationship with a girl. There were men who attract me, but it's not something that I intend to DEFINE now.**

Jonouchi he wondered how much it would be "quite some time." Because it could be that he has been a long time with that girl and he recently began to feel some attraction to men. In this case, it could be difficult to end a relationship. But if the relationship had begun after that and Seto continued with it only for not admitting his homosexuality, it was a totally different situation.

Jonouchi realized that he continued assuming and assuming endlessly. His brain didn't stop imagining different scenarios though he had to go work again in five hours.

 **Dominosxcboi: But if it really is that way, you should act on it. There must be a lot of men willing to make you happy. At least I would be! Ha ha... But what do they say?**

Jonouchi waited with cell phone in hand about ten minutes until Seto disconnected from the chat without having replied. That left him thinking. Had Seto got angry with his comment?


	9. Session III: Amane POV

**Network Masks – Stage I**

Written by: Agneta Steam

Beta Reader: BreakfastForLife 20/02/17

Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! Belongs to me, and it is no longer owned by Kazuki Takahashi.

Clarifications: This is an Alternative Universe. Story partially inspired by real events and partly inspired by the movie "The Truman Show". It will consist of four stages (or five, I'm still deciding). The personalities of the characters are not going to be such as the anime / manga, and some family relationships and ages will be modified. Thank you for reading.

 **Session III:**

 **Amane POV**

Amane observed the message, she was extremely annoyed. Not for what it contained, but because she still was not able to demonstrate that this was not true.

 **Setockr: Yes, it's me. Why haven't you accepted me?**

Since she read that message she has been reviewing sites, seeking identical or similar images on the web, like her brother had suggested in other occasions. Nothing had worked; the results obtained were not even similar. A friend of her brother who was visiting the apartment, told her that there were some programs which had that function, and with his help Amane was able to convince Ryou to allow her to install one of these. In two hours in front of computer she had already tried three different softwares -each one worse than the other-, while she was enduring her brother's comments regarding the high chances that she ended up infecting the machine for installing crap.

"What picture is, Amane?" Ryou's friend asked suddenly.

Amane, a bit surprised by the sudden interest, weighed the pros and cons of showing Seto's photography.

The most negative aspect of all was the presence of her brother. She did not want him intruding in her business, though sometimes there weren't alternative left. Like, For example, when her brother walked undisguised again and again from one side to another of the room, passing too close to the desk. Or when he stood over her back just to mess with her and get back the computer.

Ryou knew she was a user of that chat, and he didn't lose an opportunity to criticize it and reproach her that she was not old enough to visit those depraved sites. Amane understood that he did not like the chat at all, but she remembered that his brother never told anything to her parents about it, so she knew that tell him something about the photo did not mean a problem in that sense. Maybe a couple of annoying jokes.

"Someone sent me a picture saying that it was his, but I don't think it is."

The other two looked at each other, exchanging a message with their look that Amane obviously did not understand.

Without lend them more attention, she proceeded to run the fourth program. It was a trial version, with some locked functions. One of them, which Amane deeply regretted, allowed searching between images from social networks shared publicly. As expected, without these functions the results that the program showed were useless, they had nothing to do with the photography "of" Seto.

In a reflex action triggered by her anger, Amane banged his fist on the desk which caught everyone's attention.

"If you do not calm yourself, you'll end up breaking my computer and my furniture!" Her brother protested.

His friend rose from his chair and he walked over to where the albino girl was. He watched the monitor carefully while Amane was looking at him. When his gaze fixed on hers, he said:

"No wonder you not believe him, that is a professional photograph, isn't it?" he asked this last thing as the photographer was approaching.

Ryou nodded while he was observing the picture.

"It seems taken for a book… What did he say he did? Model?"

"He said nothing, but it was not necessary because the photo obviously isn't his. He is a valuable idiot…"

"And how do you know it is not him? There are valuable idiots in every profession…"

It was in circumstances such as these that Amane wanted to be an only child. Ryou should not believe that a moderately recognized person would deign himself to enter such a site. If Seto was a model, he was known and there was always the risk that his participation in such sites would harm his reputation and his career.

Amane recalled the kind of friends that Seto did not mind having… And she remembered the mention of the atomic bombs in her first conversation with Seto and she got to her worse humor.

"You're right, if there are idiot photographers why aren't going to be idiot models."

When Ryou was going to answer, his friend interrupted him with a suggestion.

"Why don't you try the Premium version?"

"You have it?" Amane asked hopefully.

"No… But Ryou can buy it… haha"

The eldest of the brothers Bakura was not amused by the proposal.

"I'm too much of an idiot to buy it."

Amane bit her lower lip, realizing she had made a major mistake by insulting his brother.

"Come on, it's only forty dollars" insisted his friend. "Then you can use it to know if someone is stealing some of your pictures. Besides, I want to know if it is really him." He finished the sentence laughing.

"Yes, I could imagine" the albino replied reluctantly pulling out his wallet from the jacket pocket.

Amane, very happy, wondered how this guy was able to convince his brother so easily. Also the response of his brother echoed in her mind. What would he mean?

Ryou held out his credit card, pulling her out of her reasoning. Amane proceeded to make the purchase before Ryou changed his mind. The other two were watching the monitor, curious.

To her misfortune, the joy didn't last long and the program showed no results. After a fifteen-minute search, it had not found any identical picture within the large base of analyzed images.

"What a waste" Ryou remarked, annoyed. "It must be him…"

"No," insisted Amane, irritated by the naivety of her brother. "If it were him, why would he upload a labor image to this chat?"

"To boast" said Ryou as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You should also consider other possibilities… I do not know… why do you upload your photos?"

"Of course it wasn't to brag. He had been giving me fifteen hundred excuses before uploading the photo he did not want to."

"What if he did not want to because it's just him and can be recognized?" Ryou continued analyzing possibilities.

"He would have uploaded a casual photo… It is the simplest thing in the world. It is clearly that this isn't him… Maybe he's photographer and he uses a photo of a customer… You should consider all possibilities, Ryou" she quipped.

"And if you have so many doubts why not ask him to upload a photo taken at the moment?" intervened the friend of her brother after having fun with intensedebate.

"He will not want to," she explains patiently. "I mentioned that he barely agreed to upload one"

"Try anyway. He can't do worse than denying…"

Seto was online at that moment. Amane preferred to ask him something before doing some unproductive request. Ryou and his friend never left her side.

 **Amane17: But why do you upload a professional photograph?**

"Let's see what absurd excuse you claim now" she said heedless of the conversation that the other two had. And it bothered her they did not turn away, but she chose to ignore them as much as possible.

As characterizes him, Seto responded immediately.

 **Setockr: I uploaded the most recent picture I have.**

"Yes, of course" she murmured.

That answer struck her as absurd. Today people pulled photos with their phones daily. And Seto could not be the exception.

"He is avoiding the issue" concluded the friend of Ryou and realizing that the brothers were watching him curious, he proceeded to clarify. "I mean, that does not explain why he opts for a professional photo, which I think is what causes all your doubts. Ask him!"

"I already asked him" the albino pointed out, turning back her attention to the screen, with a clear idea of what she had to ask Seto next.

 **Amane17: Are you model or something like that?**

Amane was convinced that Seto would deny being a model and like their first chat he was not going to respond clearly and concretely. At least not according to the criteria she was driving. But what could he be?

"A liar" she told herself.

She was surprised to see that her brother's friend was pressing F5 on the keyboard. He seemed more anxious than her to resolve this issue.

"He already answered" he pointed

"You should ask him to upload a photo now instead of making so many questions" Ryou suggested. "He answers very quickly."

"It's what I am going to do, hysterics" she uttered the last word reluctantly as she opened the message.

 **Setockr: I'm not a model. I do not know what you mean by 'something like that'. You told me you'd know if that picture was not mine but it seems to me that you can't.**

"Ha. He figured you out" the eldest Bakura said wickedly. "You should not presume things you cannot do."

"The only one who presumes lies is him… And what do you care about what I do?!"

"Dad is going to care…" Ryou started, but his friend stopped another round of verbal fight between brothers.

"Could you ask him the picture, please?"

Amane refocused on the chat, leaving questions like if her brother really would comment to their father or why his friend showed so much interest in Seto to meditate later. One thing at a time.

 **Amane17: Cannot you take a picture with your phone and upload it?**

Amane incredulously noticed how Ryou's friend head was practically over her shoulder. What a nosy!

"This asking for pictures… Is it something you do with all of that virtual bawdy house or only with this guy?" her brother asked out of nowhere.

He kept staring at her until she decided to speak.

"What is 'bawdy house'?"

"Adults Stuff" the albino friend rushed while updating the page systematically.

"No shit!" Bakura exclaimed "You go daily in a porn chat and do not know what a bawdyhouse is?"

"It's not a porn chat" Amane defended what for many was indefensible.

"He answered!"

Amane snatched the mouse from his hand, wishing they both exploded, disintegrated, or at least, teleported far away.

 **Setockr: Of course I can.**

This kind of reply did not surprise her in the least. Seto seemed an expert in making her lose time and patience.

"Look at his profile!"

"He's not flash" Ryou said.

"No, he's not going to upload it" Amane said certainly. "He always does the same thing. Until you don't insist five hundred times he doesn't upload photos, does not answer things…"

"And why do you give him so much importance?" her brother asked, inquisitive.

"I don't. I just love unmasking liars."

 **Amane17: Well?**

"Why don't you ask for something to eat?" Ryou's friend said while he straightened.

Ryou nodded and went to the kitchenette, on the opposite side to where they were. He took a pamphlet from a delicatessen that he had attached to the refrigerator with a magnet and he carefully observed the menu.

Amane watched him for a while, ready to object to any request that may contain olives. Suddenly she felt two taps on her shoulder that reminded her of the chat. She huffed annoyed while she entered the inbox.

 **Setockr: Is it necessary?**

 _"Amane17: What do you think?"_

"You were right; he gives five hundred ro…"

"Enough!" Amane demurred, tired of having a commentator for each message received. "Go to choose the food and make sure it doesn't have olives in it."

The boy looked puzzled for a moment, after which he left the desk notoriously annoyed. As if he had the right!

 **Setockr: You're very special, you know? You should have described the special requirements of the photography from the beginning. First I'll delete the other…**

Amane made a mental note of requiring to her new contacts a photo taken at the moment. She had never done that before because none of her friends in the chat had published a photo evidently alien.

 **Amane17: I am glad be special for you, Seto.**

Amane turned her attention to her brother. He had the phone in his hand, but he was discussing something with his friend. And they spoke in a low volume, leaving very clear they did not want to involve her.

It was better they were distracted with their affairs.

 **Setockr: Haha… Do I have to take off something?**

"Idiot" she said.

 **Amane17: Yes, you can choose between your mask and your makeup.**

After that message Seto didn't answer for few minutes. Amane feared he had been switched off, but that was not confirmed by visiting his profile. It was connected and he had already eliminated the previous photo.

 **Amane17: What are you doing?**

Two theories arisen in her mind: first, and most likely in her discretion, was that Seto was looking for another picture of this famous.

 **Setockr: Deleting the photography exif info… If I don't you could know what cell model I have.**

 **Amane17: And is that a bad thing?**

That craved her as a pseudo scientific excuse to win time and find a new fake photo.

 **Setockr: I think I'll have many friends here, and if one turns out to be a maniac… who knows what could be done with that information?**

"Exif info" she repeated mentally with no idea what he was referring to. She thought about asking her brother but that meant they would escort her while she was chatting. No thanks.

She opted for a Google search about what it could be. The titles that were among the first results aroused an alarm while she read.

"Exif data: the Photo's ID ", "Exif information: the DNA of your photos", "Exif: the hidden information in photos", "Exif: hidden personal data in your picture"…

Amane could no longer endure her ignorance and entered one of the articles about this data. She realized then that the pictures taken by digital cameras can contain the date, time and camera model with which they were taken. The report also revealed that the latest models of cameras and mobiles could add the GPS coordinates of where they were captured.

The latter could explain why Seto intended to erase this information, if he really owned the photo. But Amane was convinced that it was not.

The good thing about this was that now she had a tool to learn more about the photos that her friends and others published in the chat.

 **Amane17: Are you implying I'm a maniac?**

After their first conversation, Seto had given her the impression that he was an eccentric. Now, with more information about why he had some unorthodox behavior, Amane concluded that maniac was just the best way to define him. Lies will always oblige you to take care of your back every moment, and Seto was lying appropriating of the physical identity of someone else. It was logical that Seto was paranoid.

 **Setockr: It's great you read between the lines. Done.**

Amane wondered if with "done" he referred to he had finished delete metadata or had already uploaded photography. That was easy to clarify, so she did not waste more time and she entered his profile.

When viewing the thumbnail, Amane quickly realized that the person photographed was the same as in the screenshot before. She clicked on the image to enlarge view, while biting her lower lip, very irritated because Seto insisted on using photos of others.

In the photograph, 'Seto' was sitting at a desk, with the torso semi-turned and looking into the camera that evidently was opposite the furniture, partially standing back to the computer.

When Amane watched the monitor more closely, a chill ran down her spine. The browser windows displayed open the chat page. More precisely, one of the messages she had sent him. Still unconvinced, Amane scanned the date and time on the taskbar of Seto's computer and she compared it with the current. Just about eight minutes ago. The same date.

It could not be…

Ryou was already talking to the carvery. Who knows what expression would carry the albino's face when her eyes met the friend of his brother's, and motivated that him, surprised approached the desk.

"Seems that it's him, right?" he asked as he watched the screen. Amane pointed to the corner of the date and time of photography representing the big question.

"Anyway, it does not convince me…"

Amane closed the picture and she went to the friend's menu to accept the friend request, at least for now.

 **Amane17: Well Seto, I already accepted you. The photo you uploaded meets my conditions.**

"He is very clever, at least concerning computing," she continued explaining Ryou's friend, taking into account her recent discovery about the exif data. "I would not be surprised that he digitally manipulated the photo or…"

"Well, well," he interrupted her suddenly. "If it's so important, ask him his mobile number, his Facebook, his MSN… or an appointment. If you don't do it I will. Hah!"

Amane would wonder later why her brother cleared his throat apparently annoyed, just at that moment. And why his friend laughed with more intensity and he moved away to the kitchenette, where both spoke again discreetly.

 **Setockr: I'm glad I pleased you.**

For some reason, she found intolerable the use of the word "pleased". She already imagined him thinking he had gotten away with it for his deception.

 **Amane17: Should I read between the lines again?**

Amane discarded the suggestion of asking for his number, because it was very personal and she did not want Seto to interpret that she was interested in him, because she was not. Instead, it was more common to be exchanged the profile of social networks.

 **Setockr: Of course not…**

 **Amane17: Do you have Facebook?**

A few minutes later Seto disconnected without ever having responded and Amane could not help but associate it with her question.


	10. Session III: Atem POV

**Network Masks – Stage I**

Written by: Agneta Steam

Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! Belongs to me, and it is no longer owned by Kazuki Takahashi.

Clarifications: This is an Alternative Universe. Story partially inspired by real events and partly inspired by the movie "The Truman Show". It will consist of four stages (or five, I'm still deciding). The personalities of the characters are not going to be such as the anime / manga, and some family relationships and ages will be modified. Thank you for reading.

 **Session III:**

 **Atem's POV**

Atem threw his ready backpack over his bed and he went down the stairs fast. He regretted that Yugi and his grandfather were in home because it meant that -without doubt- they would ask about subjects that he didn't want to discuss. He wanted that the meal would end quickly.

He came to the dining room and sit on the opposite side of his cousin, barely giving time to the poor rabbit to leave this place.

Such detail did not go unnoticed to Yugi. Atem had problems, and the only problems able of causing bad mood always involved Shizuka. And as much as Atem would pretend not to be affected, the fact is that he was very bad at faking.

"You nearly sat on Bunny" Yugi protested.

Atem looked at him annoyed. Someone should have explained to Yugi that rabbits are not people, they are pets, and pets do not eat lunch sitting at the table with their owners. But he said nothing about it, and he began to eat without waiting for his grandfather to accompany them.

"Bunny is not guilty of your problems with Shizuka" Yugi persisted, without resigning to being ignored by Atem.

"And I am?" Atem blurted out irritably, with a gaze that would have been enough for any other party to conclude the dialogue there. But Yugi was not daunted with his expressions and his tone of voice; he had known him for sixteen years.

"I don't know," he replied laughing. "If you tell me what happened this time maybe I'll know."

"I pass."

Atem started to eat faster, trying to ignore his cousin, who usually got his way and, although there were some exceptions, this would not be one of those occasions.

"Then it's your fault for getting angry instead of solving things, yes."

"How am I going to solve our problem if it is her family? It's her who has to solve things!"

Faced with an exploding Atem, Yugi recalled that most of the time they argued it was for the extra time that Shizuka worked at her mother pizza shop because his brother didn't. By what his cousin told him, Yugi knew that Shizuka's mother, in one way or another, reclaimed to Jonouchi, but he was older and he had his own work, so the control she had over him was not the same she exercised over her still minor daughter. Apart from telling her mother how this situation was damaging her relationship with Atem, Yugi did not see how Shizuka could solve something.

"Why don't you tell me what happened, if it is obvious that you want to talk to someone?"

Atem considered this a moment, but at that point it was very clear that he would access.

"I'll tell you," he began, "but if you stand on her side, I'll throw that rabbit on the street ...dead"

"I will do my best" Yugi laughed, without even considering possible his threats.

"You see, I had no classes today. There was a teacher's assembly, so seeing that I wouldn't have to get up early, I went to look for Shizuka yesterday, thinking we could go to see the function of a stand-up comedians from the radio. I arrived and she was working, and although it was something that could be expected, that wasn't the worst."

"What happened then?" Yugi interrupted.

"I asked her what time would she end and I mentioned about the function. As expected, she was covering her brother who came home and locked himself in his room."

"The same as always ..." Yugi interrupted again.

Atem shook his head.

"That doesn't even surprise me. I would have waited until they closed, like I normally do... The problem was that she told me that after closing the store she would go with her mother to her aunt's house, because she had already agreed and now she couldn't cancel. "

Atem was silent, watching intently, waiting for Yugi to draw the same conclusions as himself.

"I don't understand" began Yugi, incredulous. "You get angry because she decided to accompany her mother before she knew you wanted to date her? Why didn't you send one message asking her if she could go out? Why didn't you call her? You live with the cell between your hands!"

Atem hid his face behind both hands; he could not believe that Yugi was so naive.

"You don't realize it, don't you?" and he wait a few unnecessary seconds; it was evident that these things never passed through Yugi's head. Obviously, her mother and her brother agreed to leave him alone at home at night to do whatever he wants to. Besides, I obviously sent her a message, I always send her messages and she takes hours to respond... If I'm lucky enough that she answers, because she sometimes tells me she didn't see it. Like yesterday, for example."

Yugi realized that the situation was more complex than he had thought at first. That in the case that the conclusions Atem had taken were correct. Why would Shizuka's brother want to be alone?

"Does Jonouchi have a girlfriend?" suddenly he asked.

"Girlfriend" Atem laughed. "I do not know if he has a girlfriend or not, or whatever he has. He doesn't need to have anything for me to be right, of course."

Both dropped the conversation as Sugoroku joined for the lunch.

Atem did not like to talk about her personal affairs in front of him, and though it was something that Yugi didn't understand, he respected it.

Atem began reviewing the phone at the table, even if it was something that his grandfather did not like. He wanted to take advantage of the time by promoting his sites on the chat and being distracted.

As soon as he logged in he received a notification of an unread message. It was from Seto, to his surprise.

 _"Setockr has shared with you the following media: domino anthem (rock version) .mp3. You can download it by visiting the link below. "_

Atem recalled that he had said he would upload it. The truth is that he had almost forgotten about that. He downloaded the file while he told Yugi about it. He also didn't know that version. When he completed the download, Atem played it at full volume, although it did not make any grace to his grandfather.

"He's very good!" Yugi exclaimed when the track had finished. "It would have been amazing listening in the stadium."

"Maybe there is a video" said Atem making a mental note to look for it at his work.

"What do you think, Grandpa?" Yugi asked.

"What a shame" Sugoroku said bluntly, surprising to his grandchildren. "An anthem is a symbol, how can anyone sing it that way? Now-a-day kids want to change everything, they don't respect nothing, nothing," he protested.

"Grandpa, it's soccer," explained Atem. "It isn't even the anthem of Japan."

"They respect nothing, nothing, and nothing" he kept protesting strongly. "Young people want to do it all over again, as though it had been invented now. They don't respect anything..."

Both grandsons continued to having lunch in silence, it was useless to pretend that his grandfather changed his mind.

 **Domino Champion: Very good version, bro. I didn't know that they had done it.**

Atem returned to the homepage to access the public chat, when immediately the new message notification interposed. Seto again. Why couldn't Shizuka respond this quickly?

 **Setockr: Yes, it was for one of the last playoffs ... haha, a funny story. How did the move go?**

 _"Do not remind me," Atem thought. That afternoon had turned everlasting, and hopefully it would never repeat. He had no desire approach that subject. The only thing that could be save was how comfortable the new facilities were, after all._

 _"Domino Champion has shared with you the following media: Come on Domino: Gallery (2). You can view it by visiting the link below. "_

 **Domino Champion: There I sent you photos of the new equipment. They are of the same quality as those used in leading broadcasters.**

Atem decided to discuss the positive aspects of the move. He also noticed how Seto was the first person who asked him about it, and how much he would have preferred that Shizuka asked him. However, that same evening after the move, he was talking to her and she had given him the impression that she wasn't even listening.

 **Setockr: I do not have great knowledge about it, but I wonder how could be measured the quality of the rabbit on your head ...**

Atem laughed, falling into account that those photos he had shared with Shizuka were still published. Yugi and his grandfather stared at him. Have they never laughed at a message?

"These young people now speak with the cell, they laugh with the cell , they sleep with the cell phone in their hands ... They use the phone even at the family table. You no longer respect anything."

Sugoroku stared at Yugi looking for complicity, and he only managed to shrug, as a minimum apology.

 **Domino Champion: Haha… That picture is old. It's our pet.**

Atem did not care about the indirect reproaches of his grandfather. What was wrong with using the phone while they were having lunch? Nothing.

 **Setockr: I never met anyone with a rabbit as pet. What I've heard is that it's not very hygienic, but I don't know how true it is.**

It was true that the rabbits were reputed to be dirty animals, especially in cases of owners without patience to teach them where to make their needs. Atem hated these people, why did they adopt an exotic pet if they were not going to pay the attention that they knew it demanded beforehand?

Yugi had devoted a great deal of time in teaching Bunny certain guidelines, and although Atem disagreed with some of them, he recognized Yugi's commitment.

 **Domino Champion: A bit, yeah... but if you teach them properly they become very clean and organized. It's actually from my cousin; he's about two years old.**

"Atem, help me clear the table" Sugoroku said when the three finished.

"I'll help you," Yugi said, knowing that his cousin was not very willing to help with those chores.

 **Setockr: Your cousin or the rabbit?**

 **Domino Champion: the rabbit. My cousin is 16 years old... By the way, the one in the picture is him, ha ha.**

Atem had published a profile picture, and because of the poor resolution of the photos that his cell phone took, he could understand that they had been confused. Both had more features in common than those which differentiated them. They could be mistaken for twins.

 **Setockr: You are very similar. I also have a small pet. Another day I'll tell you because I have to go.**

Atem took advantage of that conclusion to go up to get his backpack and go to the radio station. Before he could leave, Yugi called him and left the kitchen. Atem stood in the doorway and Yugi approached with a dish towel and a plate in his hands.

"You should go to see Shizuka, at least with the idea of clarifying things."

"No way, I always go first. I always try to fix everything. I ..."

"And what?" Yugi interrupted his excuses. "You're not even upset with her. If you are right and her mother and brother managed to get away with it for a day, do not let them do it forever. You have to fix things... And then you go out ha ha."

"The function was yesterday," Atem said, considering Yugi's words.

"You don't even have to go out ... You just watch a movie at her house, you stayed for dinner ... and then you stay ..." he suggested, perplexing Atem.

"Is that what you would do?"

Yugi shrugged, smiled and went back into the kitchen, leaving Atem with his speculations.


	11. Session III: Mai POV

**Session III:**

 **Mai's POV**

Mai looked up at the wall clock, mostly from habit as the hour could have been seen in the clock on the screen of the cell phone she held in her hands. She had been an hour waiting for Varon to connect, but given the time difference between Italy and Japan, it was becoming increasingly difficult for them to be online at the same time.

She hoped it wouldn't take him too long to join the chat. Mainly, because she enjoyed every one of the conversations they had. But also because she had to go to work in the morning, and if they chatted for at least two hours as usual, there would be left little time that she could use to rest.

The wait was proving quite bearable, since she had other friends in the chat with whom she could be distracted. When Varon would be connected, she would change her status from online to offline so no one else would write to her, as they would think she was offline.

At that moment, Mai received a new request for friendship from the user Setockr. She visited his profile to add him. He was a nineteen years old man from Tokyo. The truth was that these data were irrelevant to Mai, who accepted all the requests she received. She had no problem with having hundreds of friends, because she often chatted with about twenty users. The rest didn't. But at least she took the time to read their profiles at least once.

 **Setockr: Hi, I'm Seto. Thank you for accepting my request. I sent it because I am also from Domino, although since a year and a half ago I'm living in Tokyo.**

Mai frowned. Didn't she just read in his profile that he was from Tokyo? Why did he say he was Domino's? Had he invented it just to have something to talk about? It could be true since, with the exception of three or four users she knew very well, this chat was full of babblers.

 **Nightwhisper606: But in your profile it says Tokyo.**

Mai pulled the headphones out of her purse and started listening to music while she kept waiting for Varon to be online. When she listen the music of her favorite Goth metal band, she mentally sang the songs, so it helped her to stay awake.

 **Setockr: Yes. I told you: I moved to Tokyo a year and a half ago.**

 **Nightwhisper606: And what does that have to do? I know a user of Domino who has lived in England for three years and in his profile he puts Domino.**

That user mentioned was included in the select group of non-babblers who were her real friends. He was an older man, a legal professional, with who every time she chatted they ended up talking about the political and economic situation of Domino, and sometimes about Japan.

 **Sector: Well, I think I'm going to modify my profile and put Domino then.**

Mai could have ended the conversation in that message. Before, when she had just started using that chat, she could find interesting making new friends. But time and usage had taught her about the hundreds of false profiles that were created for different purposes, each one worse than the other. Perhaps this "Seto" was one of those cases as well. Also, who cared if he was from Domino and moved to Tokyo? Why was that a reason to filter and add users? The truth was that Mai didn't give a damn.

She returned to the inbox to see if the users she was chatting with had responded, but they hadn't. And worse was that the profile icon of one of them showed that he had disconnected without even saying goodbye.

After refreshing three or four times to see if Varon had connected, and tired of waiting for an answer that didn't arrive, she reopened the message of Setockr and answered the first idea that occurred to her.

 **Nightwhisper606: And why did you move to Tokyo?**

Mai would never go to Tokyo. Any other Japanese state had priority. Not to mention other countries.

When she was going to see Varo's profile for the umpteenth time, the new message notification was interposed. She didn't like the fact that the message was from Seto, and not from Varon or her friends. This guy responded quickly.

 **Setockr: To study. And work, I guess.**

If Mai believed everything that were written to her, hundreds of users of that chat were candidates for the Nobel Prize of Physics, Literature and even of Peace.

 **Nightwhisper606: Do you guess? And what do you study?**

Mai did study and work for real, and it bothered her greatly that people would lie about it without any modesty.

 **Setockr: I'm studying Mechatronic Engineering.**

Mechatronic Engineering? What kind of career was that? _"Maybe something related to cars and so"_ thought Mai, since mechatronics and mechanics sounded similar. She could search it on the internet, but she had no interest in doing so. She could ask Seto what it was about, but it was surely what he wanted. To talk and boast about his strange career ... She wasn't going to let him.

 **Nightwhisper606: Engineering? Oh, then you have brain, not like those inhabitant of the capital who only boast of everything but really don't know about anything.**

Mai snickered. If Seto was a Tokyo native and he wasn't from Domino, as he claimed to be, that comment would have hurt his pride. But it was true: the citizens of Tokyo were so arrogant and presumptuous.

 **Setockr: Why? Why is engineering automatically turning me into someone with brains for you? LOL. You should not prejudge in that way; I have met teachers who are accustomed to approving students because of what they have in their pockets.**

Mai thought about it for a moment. Maybe you could approve a subject for bribery. But not a career of years. At some point you have to study. A lot. Maybe Seto had the perception that the titles could be obtained with money and not with effort ... Another reason to believe that he was from Tokyo. People from Domino were humble and hardworking, not like that.

 **Nightwhisper606: Now I understand why you went to study in the capital then.**

Varon remained unconnected and her other friends leaving and disconnecting. It was a waste of time, yes. But in the long run it would be worth it. A day without chatting with her boyfriend seemed impossible.

 **Setockr: Ouch ... Haha. If only I had that money...**

Mai laughed again. Seto had caught her hint. And it was even weirder that he'd taken it humorously. Perhaps it would have been better if he had offended and wrote no more to her. By God, if he had "that money" he wouldn't be wasting time in this chat. If he studied engineering, whatever kind it was, he wouldn't be wasting time in this chat.

 **Nightwhisper606: I recently had a proposal to go to work in Italy.**

Mai felt satisfaction in writing that, because unlike the fake users, in her case it was totally true.

 **Setockr: That's great. And why didn't you leave? If you didn't leave, of course ... Or are you in Italy but your profile says Domino?**

Mai laughed a third time and she didn't understand why; it wasn't even so funny that he used her own words.

 **Nightwhisper606: I didn't leave because I didn't handle the language very well. Besides, I have a very quiet life here; I like living here. On the other hand, in Italy I wasn't going to know practically anyone.**

Mai noticed that, apart from the joke, Seto hadn't changed the subject or responded with the intention of refocusing the conversation on him. She had had countless experiences of talking to Tokyo citizens before. They always did the same thing: if she mentioned that she was studying, they started talking about their own studies; the same thing with works, with travels, with pets, etc. They believed they were the center of the world.

 **Setockr: True, you will not find a place like Domino in the whole world. Anyway, it would be good for you to learn Italian and take that opportunity. Besides, you don't have to go alone... And I guess every place has its own charms.**

Mai wondered how true this was: would Tokyo have its charm? She then concluded that it wouldn't matter whether it had it or not, since the inhabitants of the capital and their swelled heads would deprive her of appreciate it.

 **Nightwhisper606: Yes, I'm taking courses at an Italian academy. But for now I'm going to stay here. I'll see later. There'll be other chances.**

Mai considered it was best to graduate first and then leave Domino with a title under her arm to work abroad. If she left now, who knew what obstacles she could have in Italy to study as a foreigner. And though Varon could easily find a job for her, she wanted to do it on her own.

 **Setockr: That's right.**

When Mai was going to reply, the notification of the new message appeared in the window. It was Varon's, who was already connected without her noticing. Any intention to respond to Seto vanished completely.

 **Varon606: Hello, darling. Did you miss me?**


	12. Session III: Jonouchi POV

**Session III:**

 **Jonouchi's POV**

Jonouchi said goodbye to his colleagues at the Institute and left for his house, with the only desire to lie down soon and rest. Two of his friends had invited him to a pub. Although it seemed a funny proposal, at that moment he found it untimely and he excused himself.

In other circumstances he would not have refused, but that night he was exhausted, overall because of some symptoms of fever that he had in the afternoon and still didn't fade away. Also for having slept just a few hours in the last two days. This because he had accumulated a lot of materials facing the test he had just had. Some for the days he had missed class; but the great majorities were copies that he hadn't read because of his bad habit of postponing hours of study by unproductive chats.

This resulted in him having to study the content in just two nights, struggling with time, since he could not afford to take a bad note. The Institute, besides being private, was very expensive.

He had tried to ask for the day off for study at his job, but his boss didn't give it, arguing that his partner was still on medical leave and it was practically impossible to find a replacement so close to the date, in just one day.

And the local activity, as always, didn't give him a break.

The only thing he could save from that day was that he had the impression that the test had gone spectacular. He wished it wasn't just an impression.

From what he had exchanged with his companions, he wasn't the only one who had thought that the professor had taken pity on them and he had elaborated a test not as complicated as it might have been.

When he entered the living room of his home, he was surprised to see that Atem was visiting, and he was having dinner with his mother and his sister. It was strange, since generally the boyfriend of his sister preferred to avoid his family. Jonouchi wondered what had changed that day.

"How are you?" he greeted as he passed the table, without stopping his way to the stairs.

"Fine" Atem murmured without interest in establishing dialogue, at least with him.

The truth is that he was already used to it. According to some fragments that he remembered of the reproaches by absenting of the pizzeria that his mother made to him frequently, Atem kept some grudge for an exit or two frustrated with Shizuka. Well, he was getting mad at the wrong person.

"Won't you stay for dinner?" his mother asked when he had already climbed a third of the total number of steps.

"I'd rather go to sleep," he excused himself without looking at the reactions of others, and he climbed faster.

After a long shower, Jonouchi took the cell phone from his jacket and he collapsed on the bed. He turned it on to set the alarm one hour later than usual, even if he had to run to work the next day.

In that he saw that he had three text messages. He opened them and noticed that unfortunately they were obscene messages from one of the chat users who he had made the mistake of giving him his number. That had happened a couple of months ago. At the beginning all chat users are innocent angels.

Although he had blocked his number, every now and then he wrote from a new SIM.

Jonouchi blocked him for the umpteenth time and he entered the chat to make sure he wasn't writing there either. Because he did the same thing: he blocked an account and he wrote from another that just opened. In that chat it was very easy to register again and again. Of course that Jonouchi learned it after many days of use.

For the moment he hadn't received anything, though he could be any of his recently added fake contacts. By habit, he responded quickly and slyly all the messages of his friends consulting him for his disappearance, until in a moment he realized that he was wasting valuable minutes in which he could be sleeping. He left this task and visited his own profile to log out.

At that moment, as he passed over the list of friends, his attention subconsciously rested on the user Setockr, who was connected. There was something about that user he could not remember.

Jonouchi visited his profile to fade doubts, and upon seeing the new profile image he had published, he remembered his suspicions that this account was true.

He also remembered how Seto had bothered - or so he thought - with one of his personal questions. Was he right?

Jonouchi decided to send him a message to confirm it. If he continued to ignore him, he was probably angry or at least uncomfortable.

 **Dominosxcboi: Hey!**

And as he thought about it, he almost fell asleep, but he didn't do it because his mind continued to weave conclusions he could hardly consciously remember.

He wriggled a little and reloaded the page. To his surprise, Seto had responded immediately.

 **Setockr: Hi, how do you do?**

Jonouchi knew he could draw many conjectures from a message as neutral as that, but he responded quickly to avoid it and went to the point.

 **Dominosxcboi: Fine, I'm about to going to sleep. I thought you were angry haha.**

If at least Seto was angry and he would not refer to the matter, Jonouchi had saved him that step.

 **Setockr: No… Why would I be angry?**

Jonouchi wondered if he really wasn't angry or he was pretending. Or even if Seto didn't remember what he meant because he received many messages every day. Then he took the precaution of being more specific.

 **Dominosxcboi: I thought you had offended with my question and that's why you disconnected.**

Seto answered instantly:

 **Setockr: No ... The other day I disconnected because I had to wake up very early and although I wasn't sleepy, if I kept using the cell I would have never slept. Then I forgot to answer you, haha.**

Jonouchi laughed too. It was the same situation he was going through at that moment. It was better to say goodbye and rest. But he felt, besides a strange relief, curiosity about why someone like Seto would enter into a chat like that, with its well-known reputation.

Seeing the new profile photo he had published, given his appearance, he would not find it too complicated to be popular. He should have several proposals for activities to do with his friends - or his girlfriend? - At eleven o'clock at night.

 **Dominosxcboi: Whew, haha. By the way, I like the new photo you uploaded.**

Jonouchi stared at the image. It could be seen on the monitor the date a few days ago. It seemed he had taken like this on purpose. Maybe someone had hinted that his account was usurping an identity or something. The truth is that now he has cleared many doubts. Although Jonouchi wasn't yet sure that the color of his eyes was natural...

 **Setockr: Oh ... haha. You reminded me that I have to delete it.**

Delete it? Jonouchi considered if Seto had uploaded the photo for a particular user. If not, why delete it? It was a way for people to verify the veracity of the account.

 **Dominosxcboi: Don't delete it. I love to look at it haha.**

Jonouchi checked the friends Seto had. He had only added two more friends: two Domino girls as well.

 **Setockr: Um… ok.**

Um? What the hell did "um" mean?

 **Dominosxcboi: Yes, I prefer how you look in it at how you looked with all the production of the previous photograph. You look more spontaneous, you have more charm.**

It was true, his hair didn't look so straight in this new photo; many locks curved outward and his bangs were not so regular. But those blue eyes always disengaged in the midst of his Asian features. They must be contact lenses, they looked so artificial. Jonouchi noticed that Seto had responded after he had been about five minutes analyzing them.

 **Setockr: Well, it wasn't my intention to leave pictures mine published, but I suppose I can do it. What could go wrong?**

Jonouchi not surprised of those precautions about posting photos on these sites. He didn't know what Seto was doing in his account in detail - apart from adding Domino users - but there was always the risk of being identified by the least appropriate person. Anyway, the people of Domino who entered that chat were counted with the fingers of the hand practically, and although there were hundreds of users of Tokyo, in a city of millions of habitants, the probability that one of them knew Seto was minimal. At least that was what common sense said to him.

 **Dominosxcboi: Great! And what are you doing?**

Jonouchi noticed that other users were writing him more messages than the ones he had yet to read. He had no intention of responding at that moment, but the notifications were proving quite annoying. Even more when he was engaged in a particular chat. He then changed his status from online to offline.

 **Setockr: I'm chatting with you, aren't we? I thought it would be more obvious ... Haha. Okay, I'm not doing anything. I have things I should be doing, but I'm going to procrastinate until I gather enough desire to do them.**

 **Dominosxcboi: Ah haha. I thought you'd be out or something. There must be hundreds of things to do on nights like these in Tokyo. It has nothing to do with our village, haha.**

Jonouchi kept the urge to ask whether he lived alone or not. Maybe he lived with his girlfriend ... Even if it were like that, they would go out anyway. Or not? If not, it must have been an extremely boring relationship.

 **Setockr: Yes, there must be. Actually I have no idea; it isn't my priority to go out. Now I have things to study, but even if I didn't have them, I would be doing other things ... Like to improve my writing with my right hand or something like that.**

"What?"

Jonouchi considered for a moment that he was teasing him. It was so difficult to discern the tone with which people had written their messages at the time of reading them; and with Seto much more. He decided to respond in a serious way, although it was rather confusing ... or stupid.

 **Dominosxcboi: And why do you do that? And why do you do that?**

Jonouchi vaguely remembered having heard or read out there that there was a period during childhood in which it was easier to incorporate and develop physical activities, such as being ambidextrous for example. He didn't know the scientific details clearly and didn't care either; his knowledge of biology was just the necessary. Whether it was a true theory or not, in his case they had been right.

 **Setockr: As a precaution, in case I could not use my left hand anymore. I have not done very well with that either. I hope to progress.**

 **Dominosxcboi: You should have practiced it as a child; it would be easier for you.**

At least his experience told him that it was so.

Jonouchi realized that the conversation had become a quite absurd. He didn't know if it was because of his tiredness, his desire to sleep or because it was one of the most ridiculous and inconsequential topics of conversation he had ever chatted about. Actually, he was wasting his time. He decided to say goodbye and rest at once. The one he had just opened was the last message he was going to answer.

 **Setockr: When I was a kid I didn't think it was necessary.**

Jonouchi pressed the answer button as he yawned. He didn't even have to say goodbye, he could go to sleep now leaving Seto, waiting for an answer, if he really expected it. He opted for this option when his eyelids were closing alone. He didn't like to put the conversation on hold, and he usually didn't do it. He reached for the table and put the cell phone on there. He turned and set to sleep once and for all. It wasn't going to take him too long to fall asleep. Enough of unproductive chats. He had a job and a career that were his priority. Seto could tease someone else who hadn't thing to...

Jonouchi suddenly sat on his bed, as the last message returned to his mind.

 _"When I was a kid I didn't think it was necessary."_

And now it was?

Jonouchi grabbed the phone again, which was still open the window to respond.

 **Dominosxcboi: But do you have a specific problem in your hand or did you just want to prevent it just for preventing? Haha, because it could happen that you could not use many more parts of your body. You will not be able to prevent all of them. Just think about it, haha.**

It was true. He could lose his leg, his vision, his voice ... so many things. It was something that could not be prevented. He'd be wasting his time.

He updated the page and to his surprise Seto still hadn't responded. He put the cell phone on the pillow and went to the bathroom to wet his eyes to wake up. When he looked up, he saw in the mirror they were red because of the irritation. Sleeping so few hours in two days had been a feat. In three days it would be impossible.

He went back to bed and checked if he had an answer, but he didn't. At that moment he realized that he was thirsty. But he didn't want to go down to the kitchen for water. He didn't know if they were still having dinner downstairs or if Atem would have gone home by now.

He updated the page for the third time and nothing. Well, maybe Seto had disconnected again as he had said he did the previous conversation. However, when going to his profile to close session, he saw that Seto was still connected. He had a feeling of deja vu that caused him amusement.

Just then Seto responded, about fifteen minutes later.

 **Setockr: Perhaps you're right.**

Perhaps? Jonouchi already knew he was right. Why didn't he answer his question? It seemed to him that, by giving him the reason, Seto avoided to answer.

 **Dominosxcboi: I write with both hands. With one Japanese, with the other I write in Urdu.**

Jonouchi decided not to insist on the question, since there was a possibility that Seto was teasing him. However, the speed with which he had now responded made him hesitate about it.

 **Setockr: That's great. Why Urdu? Do you have foreign parents?**

Jonouchi sighed in annoyance. If Seto didn't answer his questions, why should he answer? Even so he replied.

 **Dominosxcboi: No, my parents are Japanese. But they split up when I was six. My mother started a relationship with a Pakistani businessman and we moved to his country, so I had to learn the language. Especially to understand and approve in school. Luckily they split up after two years or so. My mother never adapted, especially for its religion. We neither.**

After sending that message, Jonouchi wondered why he had put "we" if his sister was barely a year old when they left. And she was still very young when they returned. She barely remembered anything about that period. Maybe he could not write any more.

 **Setockr: It must be great to master two languages so different, right? Well, if they are so different. To be honest, I have no idea.**

Jonouchi agreed that being bilingual had its advantages, but in his case he would have preferred that this second language was another, since it wasn't useful to him in his daily life.

 **Dominosxcboi: Yes, it is. I would prefer to have learned another language, like German or French. I always found them more romantic.**

 **Setockr: Haha, I have no idea. What is supposed to make one language more romantic than the other?**

"Enough" said Jonouchi.

Another day, with another spirit, he would have elaborated on it. Now he wanted to sleep.

 **Dominosxcboi: I'm going to sleep now. Have a good night.**

When he visited his profile to close session, for the umpteenth time already, Seto had responded. He should be the user who responded faster - with certain exceptions. What kind of device would he use to chat?

 **Setockr: Really? It's still early. I want to continue chatting with you.**

Jonouchi watched the time on his cell phone. Twelve minutes for midnight. Yes, it would be early, very early, under other circumstances.

 **Dominosxcboi: I know, but I have to go to work early. Besides, I was feverish and I think I still am.**

Jonouchi hoped to recover completely by the time he went to work. He didn't think he could afford another working day in those conditions.

 **Setockr: :(**

Jonouchi bit his lower lip, shaking his head.

 **Dominosxcboi: Okay, I guess I can stay awake a bit more.**

But the truth was that he couldn't. His eyelids were too heavy.

 **Setockr: You shouldn't go to work if you feel so bad.**

 _"It's not that easy,"_ he thought. And perhaps that was what he intended to answer, but he didn't reply.


	13. Session IV: Mai POV

**Session IV:**

 **Mai's POV**

It was a quiet morning in the most prestigious accounting office in Ciudad Domino. The four offices that integrated it were invaded by the silence, because its occupants were very concentrated in their work tasks or in the activities that they realized for not having them at that moment.

The top three executives were in assembly with the studio director. The days of those meetings were the days when employees were more relaxed.

For that reason, after entering at nine in the morning, proceeding to leave the meeting room in conditions and remind the agenda of the day to its highest boss, Mai returned to her desk very aware that there were no outstanding tasks for her. It would be a long morning if she didn't answer many calls.

At eleven o'clock, she had already read all the news of Domino's three main printed newspapers and the most reputed internet portals.

The only co-worker with whom she had long conversations was in her leave period.

The day was ideal for entering the chat and trying to contact her boyfriend, although the odds that Varon was connected were minimal. In Italy it should be around four in the morning, although Varon was a nocturnal being, accustomed to dodging nights awake. As she was, too.

Mai saw that she had unread messages from other users, which was nothing new. But she was struck by the following message from Setockr, her most recent user added.

 **Setockr: Hello. I wanted to ask you a question. When you said that you had the possibility of moving to Italy, was it for work or for another reason?**

Mai read the message that had been sent at twenty-three past five in the morning of that day; a time when she wasn't online. She saw that at the moment Seto was disconnected.

It seemed bothering to Mai to ask again for something she had told him so recently. And at that time in the morning?

Seto had to find someone else to bother when he wanted to chat. Apparently, he had plenty of time to find someone.

She answered briefly, just to ask why he wanted to know.

 **Nightwhisper606: Yes, it was for work. Why?**

Mai saw on her list of friends that Varon was offline, as expected.

She decided to take advantage of that free time, and the fact that she could use the internet of the studio, to download content for the sites she had created in the chat.

One of the aspects that she liked most about this chat, apart from Varon being a user, was the possibility of creating personalized sites where texts, images, audios and short videos could be published.

Varon, having begun their relationship, had created a site entirely dedicated to her, full of phrases, poems and romantic images.

Mai returned the gentleness a few days later, and since then they used to dedicate things by that means.

When Mai started to set up the page to host these images, a notification of a new message from Setockr appeared on the screen:

When opened, Mai wondered if Seto used to put on his profile that he was disconnected when in fact he was still online, as she did.

 **Setockr: Nothing. I didn't remember it.**

Mai wondered how it was possible that he didn't remember something she had told him no more than two days ago. It sounded like a lie, but she couldn't think of a reason Seto could have to ask that. Curiosity?

Otherwise, his icon now appeared as connected. Had he logged in just to answer her? But if so, how did he know the exact moment when he had received her answer? The site didn't send notifications by email or text messages when users received messages or comments while they were disconnected. The notifications were only seen when entering the site.

Perhaps the idea that Seto changed his profile from offline to online to answer her was the most appropriate. Even more so when Seto again disconnected after replaying.

There were things about that fact that seemed strange to her, but she wasn't going to waste any more time digressing about it.

She was again concerned with setting up the new gallery for her site. And she spent about twenty minutes concentrated on it, until she received another message.

 **Varon606: I saw you, haha.**

* * *

Well, I'm back with this story. I'm looking for a beta reader since I'm not a native English speaker and my old beta reader isn't active anymore.


	14. Session IV: Vivian POV

**Session IV:**

 **Vivian POV**

Vivian Wong was in the kitchen of her apartment on the outskirts of Domino City, enjoying her last days of leave. Although the word "enjoying" did not reflect the reality when she had spent about two-thirds of the time ordering and cleaning her own house.

Luckily she could perform those activities while listening to the radio. At that time, they were broadcasting one of her favorite programs called "Music from door to door", where popular music from Domino was transmitted; the same music played in the pubs near the dock to where she used to go with her niece. The hosts debated current issues with a certain degree of she always listened to that program while working, she had to be aware that her supervisor did not notice she was with headphones on, which took away her attention from the content of the program. The most strict supervisor was the one from the school of her son Mokuba, where she worked as a cleaning assistant from noon until five p.m. It coincided with Mokuba's turn, and they always came home together from school, except for those last two weeks.

There was still an hour before she had to go to find Mokuba, so she decided to prepare homemade scones for three, in case her niece decided to stop by her house when she left work.

Another activity she used to do while she was alone was to enter the mobile chat. It was a fairly simple page for cell phones that did not consume as much data as other chat pages, which did not require the latest generation cell phones to be viewed correctly and in which you could meet very nice people.

While the number of people in Ciudad Domino who used that chat ould be counted with the fingers, the number of users increased considerably when referring to the whole Japanese country.

One of her favorite friends was from the capital. He was nicknamed Angeluz, although for the time they had been chatting Vivian knew that his real name was Isono. She also knew other things, like the fact that he had a young son, who was married - although more convinced of separating than trying to make his marriage work again and again - and that he worked as the main bodyguard of one of the richest , important and feared men of the Japanese country: Gozaburo Kaiba.

He had been using that chat for years and for that reason he had become a moderator in his country. He was in direct contact with the creator of the site and for Vivian that type of friends was also a privilege, since you could never guess what kind of conflict could be generated in the chat. Isono told her that they had some cases of fake users who distributed pornographic content on the site and deceived users to take confidential photos that later were published in other pages for adults without their authors knowing about it. The worst case that Isono told her was about a group of Japanese users who coordinated sexual services with minors.

Vivian hated that kind of people; such cowardly beings who abused children who could not defend themselves.

At the time Isono told her every detail about what was happening with that investigation but little by little the information was dwindling and she forgot to ask about it. But she could not do it now, that day had already been quite complicated for her friend. He has been telling her that he had organized an exit with his son for months, an exit that his wife frustrated when she took the child to his grandparents' house and that this situation triggered a very serious discussion between the two of them.

His role as moderator of the chat surely was the last issue that Isono wanted to talk about. Besides, because of what he had been telling her, his misfortunes did not end with his marital conflict.

 **Angeluz: To top it off, this morning I had to hear the first sermon of my employer in eight years of work and it was not even justified.**

Isono told her that he started working for Gozaburo Kaiba when he was twenty-four years old ànd his son was still a baby. And at that time he seemed to be living in a movie, because it was was utopian being an eventual security guard in clubs when the owners remembered to call him to be a security guard in one of the wealthiest families in Japan from one day to the next.

Isono had neither the experience nor the necessary training, even less contacts. However, Gozaburo did not only trust him to hire him but also paid him all the training he considered necessary. Isono wondered what Gozaburo had seen in him. He still was not sure of the answer. And sometimes he was afraid to find an answer. The work in those eight years had been wonderful. Gozaburo had many enemies in the field of business and politics, but Isono and his other companions had not been in circumstances in which they had to risk their lives to protect him. Neither his wife or his daughters.

The greatest danger was represented by the manifestation outside the mansion of the activists opposed to the development and production of weapons that the Kaiba Corp aimed at.

And for what Criquet, his superior and head of family security, had told him, in his almost 20 years of work, he had not faced situations of life or death either.

Gozaburo was satisfied with the efficiency of Isono and by the time he was two years old in the job he had already been integrated into Kaiba's personal bodyguard team.

Vivian could not imagine why Gozaburo would have lectured him that morning.

 **Divine26: What happened that he lectured you? It must have been horrible to receive a grudge that should not be for you.**

She knew exactly how he felt; after years of work in cleaning companies it was very clear to her that, with the high turnover of staff that was in the business, there were always going to be partners willing to harm you to ensure their own stability in a local. Isono had told her that he also had a rather envious partner named Ushio Tetsu, who had had occasional attempts to make him look bad. Although all had failed; at least maybe so far.

 **Angeluz: because his son fell down the cellar stairs and the greatest idiot fractured his finger. It turns out that I had to guess that he was going to fall down.**

Vivian thought that Gozaburo's attitude was absurd. She had a son too and she always tried to prevent any danger, but there are things that are impossible to anticipate and that this guy fell down the stairs was one of them.

Even more absurd was that Gozaburo wanted Isono to follow his son when he was inside his own house. His friend was a bodyguard, not a nanny, and less of a man around 20 years old.

 **Divina26: I do not understand; Do you also have to follow him when he is inside their house?**

Vivian looked out the window at the sky. There were large dark gray clouds that made her think it was going to start raining at any moment. The best thing would be to wear a jacket when she went to look for Mokuba. She went to his son's room and searched among all the clothes he had disorganized in the closet a coat. She would have to talk to Mokuba about it; It was not just the clothes that were messy, his toys and his school books as well. It was difficult to walk through the room with everything scattered on the floor.

She was going to have to be less permissive with the child until he became more organized. She could always threaten him to stop going to practice if he did not obey her. Even if the couch in his category did not agree.

The truth was that Mokuba was very talented with the ball and was a fundamental part of his team. The coach wanted to kill himself every time Mokuba got hurt or became ill and could not attend matches.

And Mokuba loved to dedicate himself to soccer but Vivian would have to make him understand in one way or another that he should not neglect the other aspects of his life. Much less the study.

Isono's son did not play sports, he was a sedentary child. His friend told her that he had tried to introduce him to basketball, tennis and soccer but they had not captivated him in the least. However, he loved music and his father paid him a private academy to learn to play the piano and the organ.

She returned to the kitchen with an autumnal jacket that she left on the counter for when she left and went back to check the chat. Isono had answered her.

 **Angeluz: It's complicated to explain ...**

Of all the answers she could have received, it was one that Vivian did not expect. While she had no idea how they would handle themselves daily in a family like the Kaiba; she knew that Isono's companion, Fuguta, limited himself to accompanying Gozaburo's daughter when she left the mansion and not inside of it. Isono did the same when he worked directly with his employer. What would have changed?

 **Divina26: Is it classified information? Haha, The X-Files...**

She still had half an hour left to go to school and the scones were ready, although Mai still did not send her any message of whether she would pass by her house or not.

 **Angeluz: If they will be X-Files that I do not understand what the hell is going on and I'm stuck in here all day.**

Vivian reread that response with the feeling that the matter was more serious than a simple anger from Gozaburo because his son got hurt. For a moment she hesitated to insist. Maybe Isono was trying to put the matter over. But her curiosity was stronger.

 **Divina26: Why do not you start from the beginning then? I thought you were angry at the sermon your boss gave you today, but from what you say it seems like there's more to it than what you told me. You always told me wonders about your job.**

It's not that Isono talked to her every day about his job. But in almost four years they had been friends of chat and real life, he had told her many things and all positive, except for some attitudes of Ushio **.**

 **Angeluz: I'll tell you but promise me you're going to keep everything I tell you secret.**

Vivian felt a chill run through her body and later she laughed. Did her subconscious think she was the heroine of a thriller?

"How ridiculous!" she said aloud. Apparently she watched too many movies.

 **Divina26: What the hell, Isono? Of course I'm going to be discreet as I always have been. You are making me paranoid.**

Isono and Vivian had met in person two years ago. Coincidentally, Gozaburo's daughter had an aunt living on the outskirts of Domino, who she rarely visited. On those occasions Fuguta traveled with her. But on that day, her father accompanied her, so Isono and his superior had to travel too. Isono told her that he was in Domino and Vivian was the one who had the initiative to propose that they meet in person. After that occasion, Gozaburo once again set foot in Domino City only six months later. And he had not visited that area since then.

Isono returned every time he was on leave; one of those times with his son, who got along very well with Mokuba.

 **Angeluz: It's okay. But be sure to erase the messages I send you because I really should not tell you these things. My job requires confidentiality.**

Vivian rolled her eyes. If Isono wanted her to erase the messages then she would erase them. Any information that he shared about the Kaiba family had no use for her.

Unless they reopened the old laboratories that the Kaiba Corp had installed in the outskirts of Domino City and they needed a cleaning assistant. But that would never happen; it was unthinkable that Gozaburo Kaiba invested a single yen in that tiny and inconsequential Japanese zone again.

 **Divina26: I will erase them all! Tell me for once that this suspense gives me more curiosity, haha.**

Vivian looked at the time on her cell phone screen: it had only been 10 minutes.

 **Angeluz: Gozaburo assigned me as his son's bodyguard when he came to live with him. He proposed to pay me fifty percent more than what I already charged, so I did not hesitate to accept it. And at the beginning everything went great. Or at least that I perceived. The first few months his son did not leave the mansion, he spent studying to give free exams and revalidate the high school here. I had a lot of free time; even Gozaburo allowed him to walk wherever he wanted and if he asked to leave without me his father also authorized it.**

Vivian pressed the necessary keys to advance on the screen but the message ended there. She remembered then that the messages in this chat had a certain character was not going to count them, but she was hoping that the motive was this and not Isono giving the subject more intrigue.

 **Divina26: And now you have to follow him everywhere?**

 **Angeluz: I thought it would be more complicated, I had met him when he was younger and he was quite unstable. When the college began, Gozaburo demanded that I take him and bring him in a car every day, which his son obviously did not want. He asked me to leave him a few blocks before so the other students would not see him arrive with me. I accepted thinking he was embarrassed to get there in the type of car that Gozaburo makes us use.**

The type of cars that Gozaburo made them drive were limousines. The guy liked to show off his fortune in every possible way.

 **Divina26: Are you going to tell me why things changed drastically or not? LOL.**

Vivian reviewed the last message while waiting for Isono's response. It struck her that Isono had met Gozaburo's son before. He had never mentioned it. Isono always talked about his two daughters from different marriages who lived with him. And what did he mean by 'he was quite unstable'? She would have to ask him.

 **Angeluz: That's how the first months of this year were. In college he was doing great and Gozaburo was very happy. So much that when he wanted to find a job he did not object, although I would say that he was offended that his son did not want to work in his company. Everything was great, although between work, college and the girl he was dating he was rarely in the mansion. One day I sat talking about this with my employer, since his son practically dispensed my services and he seemed to have no qualms. He told me that I continue like this, that I were available when was needed but that I did not worry. How you can see, everything was going very well.**

Vivian was about to reply when a new message came to her:

 **New friend request: Setockr would like to be your friend! You can visit his profile to accept or reject his application through the following link.**

Vivian accepted it. She always accepted all the requests, although she rarely chatted with new users. She returned to chat with Isono.

 **Divina26: Let me guess: he began to do badly in college and ruined everything with his father.**

Vivian doubted that it was about that, it did not seem like something for which Isono had so much secrecy. But what could it be?

When updating the chat she saw that she had another new message although it was not from Isono.

 **Setockr: Hello, my name is Seto. Thank you for accepting my request. I sent you the application because I am also from Domino, although I moved to Tokyo a year and a half ago.**

Vivian hesitated to respond, she did not have time to start another chat nor wanted to. When she decided to greet him and nothing else the answer of Isono came.

 **Angeluz: No. But one day Gozaburo and his family were having dinner with Doctor Hopkins and some of his associates and his son suddenly appeared and he was destroyed.**

"The peak of absurdity" Vivian murmured.

Why did not Isono tell her everything at once and stopped his dramatic pauses?

 **Divina26: What do you mean by destroyed? I do not understand...**

Doctor Hopkins was Gozaburo's father-in-law, the grandfather of his youngest daughter. Isono had told her that they had been partners for more than twenty-five years . Gozaburo Kaiba seemed to have a great respect for him.

 **Angeluz: I was talking to Keith, my co-worker when he appeared, climbing over the walls as if he were a thief. And I still do not know how he manged to do it because with the blows he had received he was not in a state to play Spiderman. I was going to tell his father when my partner told him that if he daredto look like this in front of Gozaburo, his father was going to kill him. And can you imagine that he did belive it? I could not believe it.**

 **Divina26: Why did he come in that way? Who beat him?**

Vivía looked at her watch and was surprised: it was already five minutes to five in the afternoon. The last minutes had passed very quickly.

 **Angeluz: I did not find out at the time. Gozaburo did not see his son until the next day. He were furious. I expected the worst regarding my job continuity but to my surprise he did not blame me in the least. But he demanded that from that moment I followed his son everywhere. Can you believe that he wanted to increase my salary again? Obviously I rejected it. I did not want to abuse his generosity.**

Vivian thought Gozaburo was a great leader and Isono had won the lottery. But of course the guy was profiting at the expense of national tragedies.

Divina26: Well, I understood why you have to follow him at every moment. Although what you told me is not so confidential. But who beat him?

Vivian put on her jacket and took the coat she had separated for Mokuba. She closed the front door of her house and started walking towards the school. On the corner, she met with her neighbor and co-worker of the night, with whom she cleaned a Fashion Institute that was in the center of Domino City, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

"You always with the cell phone in your hand - greeted the redhead woman.

" And you always with the cigarette in your mouth" Vivian replied.

"No, no. Not always!"

Both laughed at once. Her neighbor walked with her to school, evidently needed to talk with someone after two weeks of working alone.- How can I not smoke with the idle son I have? He makes my nerves stand on end.

"Here we go again," Vivian told herself. She knew the son, he was called Ameruda and he had always give reasons to talk about him.

Luckily, she had a new message from Isono.

 **Angeluz: That's what I meant by confidential. But I'll tell you later, I have to go with him to his girlfriend's house. REMEMBER TO DELETE THE MESSAGES. See you later.**

"Right now," Vivian told herself.

Isono was already disconnected so she put the cell phone in her pocket and told her neighbor:

"Well, tell me all your misfortunes once and for all."

They both laughed.

* * *

I'm looking for a betareader for my translations. I'm not very good at this.


End file.
